System and method for growing plants and monitoring growth of plants

ABSTRACT

A system for growing plants and monitoring the growth of plants, comprising a gardening system and a server. The gardening system comprises a frame that defines a housing for receiving a tray of plants. The gardening system also has a lighting subsystem and watering subsystem to provide light and water to the plants. Sensors and cameras of the gardening system may capture data corresponding to the conditions of the gardening system and health of the plant. Based on the captured data, the server may use machine learning to determine optimal plant growing thresholds, and may send a control command to a controller of the gardening system to change one or more conditions of the gardening system. The plants grown by the system may be nutritious, and the bioavailability of the nutrients of the plants may be increased.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation stemming from and claiming priority to U.S.patent application Ser. No. 16/970,172, which is a national phase entryof PCT/CA2019/050184, filed Feb. 15, 2019, which claims priority to U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 62/710,424, filed Feb. 16, 2018, allof which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

FIELD

The following application relates to growing plants, and in particularto systems and methods for growing plants and monitoring growth ofplants for a vertical farming system.

BACKGROUND

To produce plants for consumption, agricultural techniques such asfarming may be used. Seeds may be planted in soil over a large area ofland. Over time, the seeds may grow into the plants, which may then beharvested and processed for consumption. During growth of the plants,additional systems may be used to control the conditions of theenvironment. For example, hydrology systems, lighting systems,pesticides, and protective structures may be used. The harvested andprocessed plants may be distributed to markets, some of which may be farfrom the farm, to be sold to consumers. The costs of these additionalsystems, the transportation costs, and the storage costs, and othercosts of producing plants, may be reflected in the price of the plantssold to the consumers.

Various systems have been developed for reducing the amount of space andthe cost of growing plants, such as vertical farming. Unfortunately,existing systems may require additional systems external to the existingsystems to grow plants. Moreover, existing systems may not be able toaccommodate plants of different sizes, thereby limiting the type ofplants that may be grown. In addition, existing systems may not monitorthe growth of plants, may not determine optimal plant growingthresholds, and build intelligence in regards to optimal plant growth,or alert a user if conditions of the existing systems need to bechanged. Furthermore, existing systems may provide certain inputs forgrowing plants, such as water, minerals, sunlight, air, and the like,with the goal of growing the plant. However, the body and cells of theconsumers of the plants, such as humans, need to intake and absorb theessentials (e.g. minerals, vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, etc.) ofthe plants. While these essentials may be present in plants grown usingexisting systems, the plants may not provide the essentials into thehuman cell due to maltreatment or compromised conditions of theenvironment in which the plants are grown.

SUMMARY

Disclosed herein is a gardening system for growing plants and monitoringgrowth of the plants, comprising: a frame defining a housing forreceiving a tray of plants; a lighting subsystem mounted to the framefor illuminating the housing; a water subsystem, comprising: a waterreservoir mounted to the frame; a water distribution tray fluidlycommunicable with the water reservoir, the water distribution traydefining one or more channels for receiving water from the waterreservoir; one or more sensors for capturing data corresponding toconditions of the housing; and a controller for selectively activatingthe lighting subsystem based on lighting conditions of the housing.

Disclosed herein is a system for growing plants and monitoring growth ofthe plants, comprising: a server; at least one network interface;wherein the server comprises at least one memory and at least oneprocessor configured for: receiving sensor data from a verticalgardening system; based on the sensor data, determining optimal plantgrowing thresholds;

receiving additional data from the vertical gardening system; comparingthe additional data with the optimal plant growing thresholds; and basedon the comparing, generating a control command corresponding to anoptimization recommendation and transmitting the control command to auser device.

Many further features and combinations thereof concerning embodimentsdescribed herein will appear to those skilled in the art following areading of the instant disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

In the figures which illustrate example embodiments:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system for growing plants and monitoringgrowth of plants;

FIG. 2 is a schematic of a server of the system of FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a gardening system;

FIG. 4 is a schematic of dimensions of the gardening system of FIG. 3 ;

FIG. 5 is a schematic of dimensions of the gardening system of FIG. 3 ;

FIG. 6 is a schematic of the gardening system of FIG. 3 ;

FIG. 7 is a system diagram of the gardening system of FIG. 3 ;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a tray;

FIG. 9 is a front view of the tray of FIG. 8 ;

FIG. 10 is a back view of the tray of FIG. 8 ;

FIG. 11 is a left view of the tray of FIG. 8 ;

FIG. 12 is a right view of the tray of FIG. 8 ;

FIG. 13 is a top view of the tray of FIG. 8 ;

FIG. 14 is a bottom view of the tray of FIG. 8 ;

FIG. 15 is a perspective view of the gardening system of FIG. 3 ;

FIG. 16 is a schematic of a lighting subsystem;

FIG. 17 is a schematic of a lighting subsystem illuminating a housing ofa gardening system;

FIG. 18 is a schematic of a water subsystem;

FIG. 19 is a schematic of a water distribution tray of the watersubsystem of FIG. 18 ;

FIG. 20 is a schematic of the water subsystem of FIG. 18 ;

FIG. 21 is a schematic of the water subsystem of FIG. 18 ;

FIG. 22 is a schematic of the water subsystem of FIG. 18 ;

FIG. 23 is a schematic of the water subsystem of FIG. 18 ;

FIG. 24 is a schematic of the water subsystem of FIG. 18 with wickingcoils placed in channels of the water distribution tray;

FIG. 25 is a schematic of the water subsystem of FIG. 18 with a trayplaced on the water distribution tray having wicking coils in thechannels;

FIG. 26 is a schematic of a water level sensor configured for capacitivetouch mounted to a water reservoir;

FIG. 27 is a schematic of the gardening system of FIG. 3 incommunication with a user device;

FIG. 28 is a schematic of the gardening system of FIG. 3 incommunication with a user device;

FIG. 29 is a schematic of stacked gardening systems;

FIG. 30 is a schematic of stacked gardening systems with separatelyformed feet;

FIG. 31 is a schematic of stacked gardening systems with integrallyformed feet;

FIG. 32 is a schematic of stacked gardening systems with variations ofintegrally formed feet;

FIG. 33 is a schematic of stacked gardening systems with variations ofseparately formed feet;

FIG. 34 is a schematic of stacked gardening systems with rubber feet;

FIG. 35 is a schematic of stacked gardening systems with portions of thegardening systems removed to accommodate high-growing plants;

FIG. 36 is a schematic of stacked gardening systems;

FIG. 37 is a schematic of a soil unit;

FIG. 38 is a schematic of seed sheets;

FIG. 39 is a schematic of seed sheets;

FIG. 40 is a schematic of spatial distributions of seeds in a seed sheetfor growing various plants;

FIG. 41 is a flow chart depicting a method of using the gardening systemof FIG. 3 ;

FIG. 42 is a schematic of another gardening system;

FIG. 43 is a schematic of another gardening system;

FIG. 44 is a schematic of another gardening system;

FIG. 45 is a schematic of another gardening system;

FIG. 46 is a schematic of another gardening system;

FIG. 47 is a schematic of another gardening system;

FIG. 48 is a schematic of another gardening system;

FIGS. 49-62 are schematics of another gardening system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A system for growing plants and monitoring the growth of plants and amethod for its use are disclosed. The system may grow a variety ofvegetables. The system may detect the conditions of the environment andmonitor the plants to promote plant growth. The system may comprise agardening system, a server, and one or more user devices in datacommunication via a network. The gardening system comprises a frame thatsupports a controller, a lighting system, a watering system, one or morecameras, and one or more sensors. The gardening system may receive atray, which may house soil to grow plants.

The system may be self-contained, such that the system may comprisefeatures and provide a suitable environment for plants to grow in thesystem without assistance from external systems.

The system may be modular, such that the gardening system may be stackedonto another gardening system. In addition, components of the gardeningsystem may be added or removed to assemble a gardening system having acertain size, dimensions, or features to accommodate growth of certainplants, thereby increasing the number of types of plants that may begrown by the system.

Based on the data captured by sensors on the gardening system, thecontroller may monitor the conditions of the gardening system, such aswater tank levels, humidity, progress of growth of the plants (e.g.photosynthesis activity, amount of chlorophyll, mineralization of theplant, etc.), light usage, and the like. The controller may be in datacommunication with a user device, such as a smart phone or a homemonitoring system (e.g. Google Nest), or an application downloaded on asmart phone (e.g. Apple Health), and may send a control command to theuser device to display a message on the display screen of the userdevice. The message may relate to the conditions of the gardeningsystem.

The data captured by the sensors may be transmitted by the controller tothe server via the network. The server may process the data captured bythe sensors and determine optimal plant growing thresholds, and buildintelligence in regards to optimal plant growth. The server maydetermine that a plant is growing sub-optimally, based on theintelligence that it has developed, and may send an alert to a userdevice with optimization recommendations. The control command may besent to the user device to prompt a user to manually change theconditions of the gardening system. In some embodiments, the controlcommand may be sent to the gardening system to automatically anddynamically change the conditions of the gardening system.

The system may be used to conveniently grow vegetables daily at thetouch of a button. By controlling inputs for growing the plants, theplants grown by the system may be nutritious (e.g. vitamins, minerals,proteins, carbohydrates, fats, phytochemicals, enzymes, etc. that mayprevent deficiency disease, and for processing food into tissues andenergy), and the bioavailability of such nutrients may be increased,such that the absorption of the nutrients by the consumers of the plantsmay increase.

The health of a plant may be determined based on a number of factors,such as photosynthesis activity, green-ness, its colour, chlorophylllevels, the inclusion or availability of certain materials, taste, andthe like.

For a plant to be healthy, it may need certain inputs during its growth,such as water, minerals, sunlight, air, and the like, which may be foundin the environment. The system as described herein may adjust theseinputs manually or dynamically through machine learning based on datacaptured by sensors and cameras of the system. This may improve thehealth of the plants, provide increased amount of mineralization, andmay make bioavailable to the consumer of the plants the essentials ofthe plants.

The essentials of a plant may be a mineral, vitamin, protein,carbohydrate, and the like. For example, the human body needsessentials, and a human may eat food, such as plants, to introduce theseessentials to the body.

The health of the plant may be mineralization of cells, whether in aplant or in a living animal or human body.

The bioavailability of essentials may be the ability for the human bodyto use the essentials, absorb the essentials, or process the essentials,which may be measured at the cellular level of the consumer of theplants, such as at the cellular level of the human body. Thebioavailability may be measured in a number of ways.

The sensors and cameras of the system may capture data (and may transferthe data into the cloud) to analyze the growth of the plant in order tooptimize, through data analysis, the bioavailability of the essentialsof the plant.

The system may dynamically or manually control the environment of agardening system and may provide an increasing intelligent optimizationof making bioavailable the essentials to the human cell, through the useof computer learning or adaptable artificial intelligence. The systemmay control inputs to the plants to enhance the growth of plants to bemore nutritious.

The system may grow plants for optimal health to a human body, such asfor nourishment, health, and bioavailability of essentials or mineralsfound in plants. To provide this nourishment, the system may provideconditions for growing the plants that may mimic nature, and may seekopportunities to enhance the conditions. The system may dynamically orautomatically adjust inputs that may be provided to the plants. Thesystem may continually, through the use of sensors and imagingcomponents, automatically adjust the environment or send messages to auser to recommend manual adjustment of the environment.

In some embodiments, optimization of a plant may be on the basis ofincreasing bioavailability of essentials of minerals found in plants. Insome embodiments, optimization may be on the basis of maximizing plantgrowth. Optimization may be defined by comparison to reference data ofdesired plant parameters. In an example, a plant that has grown wellwithin a time window with a desired micronutrient profile, and hasdesired variables such as taste and texture, may be defined as anoptimal plant and used as a reference and with reference to the growingconditions (e.g., temperature, humidity, light, soil) that lead to theoptimal plant. In some embodiments, optimal characteristics of a plantmay be defined by a predefined value.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system 10 for growing plants andmonitoring growth of plants. As depicted in FIG. 1 , the system 10 maycomprise a gardening system 100, a server 104, and one or more userdevices 114 that may be communicable over a network 106. In someembodiments, the components of the system 10 may be directlycommunicable without the network 106. The gardening system 100 maycomprise a controller 102, a sensor component 192, an imaging component190, a lighting subsystem 154, and a water subsystem 210. Based on thedata captured by the sensor component 192 and the imaging component 190of the gardening system 100 or the growth of the plants, the controller102 may process the data to monitor the conditions of the gardeningsystem 100.

Based on the data captured by the sensor component 192 and the imagingcomponent 192, the controller 102 may transmit a message to a userdevice 114. The message displayed on the user device 114 may cause auser to change the conditions of the gardening system 100, such asincreasing or decreasing the amount of available light, or filling up awater reservoir. In addition, the controller 102 may send the datacaptured by sensor component 192 and imaging component 190 to the server104. The server 104 may process the data captured by the sensors 192 anddetermine optimal plant growing thresholds, and build intelligence inregards to optimal plant growth. As the controller 102 sends additionalcaptured data to the server 104, the server 104 may compare theadditional captured data with the optimal plant growing thresholds.Based on the comparison between the additional captured data with theoptimal plant growing thresholds, the server 104 may generate a controlcommand corresponding to an optimization recommendation and transmit thecontrol command to a user device 114.

In some embodiments, the additional captured data to be compared withthe optimal plant growing thresholds may be real time or near real timedata captured by sensor component 192 and imaging component 190, or maybe data that is stored in memory and processed by the server 104 at alater time.

In some embodiments, the controller 102, upon processing the captureddata from the sensor component 192 and imaging component 192, may send acontrol command to a subsystem of the gardening system 100 (e.g.lighting subsystem 154) to change the conditions of the gardening system100 to promote plant growth. In some embodiments, the server 104, uponprocessing the captured data from the sensor component 192 and imagingcomponent 192, may send a control command to the controller 102 forsending control command to a subsystem of the gardening system 100 (e.g.lighting subsystem 154) to change the conditions of the gardening system100 to promote plant growth. In such embodiments, the system 10 mayautomatically monitor the growth of plants and automatically change theconditions of the gardening system 100 to promote plant growth.

In some embodiments, when a user receives a message on a user device 114from the controller 102 or server 104, the user may send a controlcommand using the user device 114 (e.g. smart phone, laptop, desktopcomputer) such that the controller 102 may send control command to asubsystem of the gardening system 100 (e.g. lighting subsystem 154) tochange the conditions of the gardening system 100 to promote plantgrowth. The user may also input a control command using a control panelon the gardening system 100. In such embodiments, a user may control theconditions of the gardening system 100 to promote plant growth.

In some embodiments, the processing of data captured by the sensorcomponent 192 and imaging component 192 may be done by the controller102, the server 104, or a combination thereof.

The data captured by the sensor component 192 and imaging component 192corresponding to the growth of plants or conditions of the gardeningsystem 100 may be used by a user or third parties for analyzing plantgrowth, predicting plant health, and so on. In some embodiments, thedata captured by the sensor component 192 and imaging component 192 maybe processed by the controller 102 or server 104 to optimize thecomposition of soil used in the gardening system 100 to grow plants.

Ongoing monitoring plant growth, analyzing plant growth, and predictingplant health may be a non-trivial task. Accurate tracking of the plantsmay increase the amount of nutrients in the plant, and may increase theamount of nutrients consumed by the user. Similarly, inaccurate trackingof the plants may decrease the amount of nutrients in the plant, and maydecrease the amount of nutrients consumed by the user.

The system 10 may grow plants that may be nutritious to the human bodyas it relates to the human bioavailability of plant minerals to enableoptimum human cellular health (e.g. high nourishment for the body). Thesystem 10 may be driven by bio-inputs, such as microbial rich soil, sunmimicking LED lights, an infrared camera that captures photosynthesis tooffer feedback to customers, sound waves that enhance plant growth, andbio geometric design.

One or more plant types may be grown at the same type using the system10, such as greens, microgreens, herbs, root vegetables, and the like.The gardening system 100 may receive one or more trays that may hold oneor more groups of soil that contain seeds of the plant to be grown. As aseed grows into plants, the plants may be harvested and other planttypes may be grown. The characteristics of the plant types grown usingthe system 10 may be different. For example, different plant types mayhave different colours, size, root length, leaf type, degree ofphotosynthetic activity, water absorption, amount of carbon dioxideprocessed, amount of oxygen emitted, sound emitted by the plant or itsroots or inaudible vibration by the plant or its roots, and the like.Similarly, variations within the same species of plant may havedifferent characteristics.

Accordingly, a flexible implementation may be preferable so that adiverse range of plants may be grown using the system 10. In someembodiments, the system 10 may be configured for interoperation with adiverse range of plant types, and also to flexibly adapt in view ofdifferent plants that may be grown with the system 10. The system maynot be “hard coded” to associate certain characteristics with the growthof certain plants, but rather, applies machine-learning to dynamicallyassociate and create linkages as new plant types are introduced to thesystem 10. Interoperability may be beneficial where the system 10 may beused in different environments, such as different homes having differentpreferences for vegetables, different regions of a country or differentcountries altogether that grow different plants. In some embodiments,the system 10 may adapt flexibly in response to such differences (e.g.,by changing the amount of light produced by the lighting system,changing the amount of oxygen or carbon dioxide in the housing of thegardening system 100, adapting defined feature recognition linkages,adapting imaging characteristics, image data processing steps, etc.).

In some embodiments, data corresponding to plant growth or conditions ofthe gardening system 100 may be collected using machine-vision capablesensors and other sensors (e.g. temperature, humidity, water level,light level) that may be mounted to the gardening system 100. Thesesensors monitor the housing of the gardening system 100 to determine theconditions of the gardening system 100 and growth of plants in thegardening system 100. Machine vision of the machine-vision capablesensors may include imaging in the visual spectrum, and may also includeimaging in other frequency spectra, RADAR, SONAR, etc. Machine visionmay include image processing techniques, such as filtering,registration, stitching, thresholding, pixel counting, segmentation,edge detection, optical character recognition, among others.

The system 10 may not have hard-coded reference libraries of theconditions of the gardening system 100 or the types of plants grown inthe gardening system 100 or the characteristics of the types of plantsgrown in the gardening system, and instead, may be flexibly provisionedduring calibration or use of the system 10 to build a reference libraryusing captured real-world data (e.g. image data, sensor data) to train abase set of features. The system 10 may be used without prior knowledgeof the types of plants to be grown in the gardening system 100.

As depicted in FIG. 1 , the system 10 comprises one gardening system100. In some embodiments, the system 10 may comprise more than onegardening system 100. Similarly, as depicted in FIG. 1 , the system 10comprises one server 104. In some embodiments, the system 10 maycomprise more than one server 104.

The gardening system 100 may comprise the sensor component 192 andimaging component 190 for capturing data of the gardening system 100.The sensor component 192 and imaging component 190 may capture datacorresponding to a housing of the gardening system 100. The controller102 may process the data. A transceiver may transmit the captured dataover a network to the server 104. The controller 102 may receive ortransmit control commands.

The gardening system 100 may include components that may increase theaccuracy of the sensor component 192 and imaging component 190 forcapturing data of the gardening system 100. For example, the gardeningsystem 100 may include light emitters that may emit light of certainwavelengths, such that said light may reflect from the plants grown inthe gardening system 100 and may be detected by the imaging component190.

The gardening system 100 may have one or more controllers 102 havingcomputational capabilities directly built into the gardening system 100.In some embodiments, these computational capabilities provide for datapre-processing features that may be used to improve the efficiency(e.g., file-size, relevancy, redundancy, load balancing) of dataultimately provided to a backend for downstream processing (e.g. toserver 104). The gardening system 100 or system 100 may include somestorage features for maintaining past data and records. Thepre-processing may aid in speeding up computation so that it may beconducted in a feasible manner in view of resource constraints.

In some embodiments, the gardening system 100 may contain multiplephysical processors, each of the physical processors associated with acorresponding imaging component 190 or a sensor component 192. In suchembodiments, the system 10 may have increased redundancy as the failureof a processor may not result in a failure of the entirety of plantgrowth monitoring capabilities, and the system 10 may also provide forload balancing across each of the physical processors, improving theefficiency of computations. Each imaging component 190 or sensorcomponent 192 may be tracked, for example, using an individualprocessing thread.

The system 10 may comprise a server 104 with a processor coupled to adata store 112. The one or more gardening systems 100 may be incommunication with the server 104 via the network 106.

The server 104 may process data captured by the sensor component 192 andimaging component 190 and received from the gardening system 100 overthe network 106 to detect the conditions of the gardening system 100 andgrowth of the plants in the gardening system 100. The server 104 maytransmit commands and data to the gardening system 100 or to otherconnected devices, such as user devices 114. The server 104 may processand transform the data captured at the gardening system 100 to determineoptimal plant growing thresholds, and build intelligence in regards tooptimal plant growth, and conduct other analysis. The server 104 maydetermine that a plant is growing sub-optimally, based on theintelligence that it has developed, and may send an alert to a userdevice 114 with optimization recommendations, or may send a controlcommand to the gardening system 100 to change a condition of thegardening system 100.

In some embodiments, the server 104 may be implemented using one server.In other embodiments, the server 104 may include one or more computingdevices connected together over a network. The computing devices mayinclude central servers, distributed computing systems, or any number ofprocessors, memories, or data storage devices in any physical or logicalarrangement suitable to provide the functions of the server 104.

The system 10 may comprise a front end interface 110 to transmitprocessed data, and receive data from different interfaces. The frontend interface 110 may reside on different types of devices, such as acomputer, a personal digital assistant, a laptop, or a smart phone. Thefront end interface 110 may provide different reporting services andgraphical renderings of processed data for user devices. Graphicalrenderings of processed data that was captured from the gardening system100, may be used, for example, by various parties and/or stakeholders inanalyzing growth of plants or health of plants grown in the gardeningsystem 100.

The front end interface 110 may provide an interface to the server 104for user devices and third-party systems 108. The front end interface110 may generate, assemble and transmit interface screens as web-basedconfiguration for cross-platform access. An example implementation mayutilize Socket.io for fast data access and real-time data updates.

The front end interface 110 may assemble and generate a computinginterface (e.g., a web-based interface). A user can use the computinginterface to subscribe for real time event data feeds via the front endinterface 110. The interface 110 may include a first webpage as a maindashboard where a user may see the plants grown in the gardening system100 and processed data in real time, or near real time. The display maybe updated in real-time or near real time.

The front end interface 110 may include a page where users may sendcontrol commands to the gardening system 100. For example, based on thegraphics displayed on the front end interface 100 (e.g. the light is toobright), the user may send a control command from the front endinterface 110 to the gardening system 100 for the controller 102 to senda control command to the lighting subsystem 154 to reduce the amount oflight emitted by the lighting subsystem 154.

The front end interface 110 may include a historical data page, whichmay display historical data captured by the gardening system 100 andprocessed by the server 104.

The system may comprise one or more third party systems 108 for dataexchange. For example, the third party system 108 may collect datacaptured by the gardening system 100 or data processed by the server104.

The server 104 may be configured to access or otherwise obtainhistorical data, real time data, or near real time data from variousdata sources. The data sources may be sensor components and imagingcomponents of one or more gardening systems 100. The server 104 maycomprise a data interface for receiving the data from one or moregardening systems 100.

FIG. 2 is a schematic of the server 104 of the system 10.

The server 104 may be configured to collect data captured from thesensor component 192 and imaging component 190 of the gardening system100. The server 104 may process the data captured by the sensors anddetermine optimal plant growing thresholds, and build intelligence inregards to optimal plant growth.

For simplicity, only one server 104 is depicted in FIG. 1 , but thesystem 10 may include more servers 104. The server 104 may include atleast one processor, a data storage device (including volatile memory ornon-volatile memory or other data storage elements or a combinationthereof), and at least one communication interface. The computing devicecomponents may be connected in various ways including directly coupled,indirectly coupled via a network, and distributed over a wide geographicarea and connected via a network (which may be referred to as “cloudcomputing”).

For example, and without limitation, the computing device may be aserver, network appliance, set-top box, embedded device, computerexpansion module, personal computer, laptop, or computing devicescapable of being configured to carry out the methods described herein.

As depicted in FIG. 2 , the server 104 may include at least oneprocessor 180, an interface API 184, memory 186, at least one I/Ointerface 188, and at least one network interface 182.

The processor 180 may process the data from the gardening system 100,which may include image data or sensor data, and so on, as describedherein. Each processor 180 may be, for example, a microprocessor ormicrocontroller, a digital signal processing (DSP) processor, anintegrated circuit, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), areconfigurable processor, a programmable read-only memory (PROM), or anycombination thereof.

Memory 186 may include a suitable combination of computer memory thatmay be located either internally or externally such as, for example,random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), compact discread-only memory (CDROM), electro-optical memory, magneto-opticalmemory, erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), andelectrically-erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM),Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM) or the like.

Each I/O interface 188 enables the processor 180 to interconnect withone or more input devices, such as a keyboard, mouse, camera, touchscreen and a microphone, or with one or more output devices such as adisplay screen and a speaker.

Each network interface 182 enables the processor 180 to communicate withother components, to exchange data with other components, to access andconnect to network resources, to serve applications, and perform othercomputing applications by connecting to a network 116 (or multiplenetworks) capable of carrying data, including the Internet, Ethernet,plain old telephone service (POTS) line, public switch telephone network(PSTN), integrated services digital network (ISDN), digital subscriberline (DSL), coaxial cable, fiber optics, satellite, mobile, wireless(e.g. Wi-Fi, WiMAX), SS7 signaling network, fixed line, local areanetwork, wide area network, and others, including any combination ofthese.

Application programming interface (API) 184 is configured to connectwith front end interface 110 to provide interface services as describedherein.

The processor 180 may be operable to register and authenticate user anduser devices (using a login, unique identifier, and password forexample) prior to providing access to applications, network resources,and data. The processor 180 may serve one user/customer or multipleusers/customers.

The server 104 may be configured to identify optimal plant growingthresholds by continually capturing data to build intelligence usingartificial intelligence or machine learning. Upon identifying theoptimal plant growing thresholds, the server 104 may compare additionaldata, such as newly captured data from the gardening system 100,determine optimization recommendations for optimizing the health of theplant or growth of the plant to improve the bioavailability of theessentials of the plant. The server 104 may send a control command tothe gardening system 100 to automatically change a condition of thegardening system 100, or may send a control command corresponding to analert to a user device 114, to prompt a user to manually change acondition of the gardening system 100.

The components of the system 10, such as the gardening system 100, theserver 104, the user devices 114, may connect to each other or to otherdevices or components in various ways including directly coupled andindirectly coupled via the network 106. The network 106 (or multiplenetworks) may carrying data and may involve wired connections, wirelessconnections, such as the Internet, Ethernet, plain old telephone service(POTS) line, public switch telephone network (PSTN), integrated servicesdigital network (ISDN), digital subscriber line (DSL), coaxial cable,fiber optics, satellite, mobile, wireless (e.g. Wi-Fi, WiMAX), SS7signaling network, fixed line, local area network, wide area network,and others, and may be connected with other communications networks,such as GSM/GPRS/3G/4G/LTE networks, or a combination thereof. Thenetwork 106 may involve different network communication technologies,standards and protocols, such as, for example, G2S protocols.

The server 104 or gardening system 100 may be in communication with oneor more user devices 110. The user devices 110 may be connected directlyto network 106, or may be connected to network 106, as depicted in FIG.1 , or by way of another network. The user devices 110 may be, forexample, personal computers, desktop computers, laptop computers,smartphones, tablet computers, or the like, and may be based on anysuitable operating system, such as Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X or iOS,Linux, Android, or the like. For example, the user device 110 is asmartphone that a user may use to view messages transmitted from thegardening system 100 or server 104, to view data captured from thegardening system 100 and processed by the server 104, or to send controlcommands to the gardening system 100 or server 104.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the gardening system 100. The gardeningsystem 100 may comprise a frame 120 that defines a housing 136, whichmay receive one or more trays 142 that may contain the soil and plantsgrown in the gardening system 100. The bottom surface of the housing 136may be the growing bed of the gardening system 100, which may be theentire plant growing surface area. The trays may be placed on the bottomsurface of the gardening system 100, which may be a water distributiontray 224 of a watering subsystem 210.

As depicted in FIG. 3 , the gardening system 100 may have a generallyrectangular design with rounded corners and recessed sides.

As depicted in FIG. 3 , the frame 120 may comprise one or more verticalelements 122, one or more horizontal elements 124, one or more cornerelements 126, one or more corner caps 128, one or more side panels 130,or one or more top panels 132. The components of the frame 120 may bejoined together using screws, clips, glue, and the like, or otherfasteners and couplings, or may be friction-fit, snap-fit, or click-fit,such that the components to be joined together, and may allow thecomponents to be separated and re-joined together, and have additionalcomponents be added or changed to change the size or dimensions of theframe 120 and the housing 136. The frame 120 may house the plants thatare grown in the gardening system 100.

In some embodiments, the frame 120, or the parts of the frame 120 (e.g.the one or more vertical elements 122, one or more horizontal elements124, one or more corner elements 126, one or more corner caps 128, oneor more side panels 130, or one or more top panels 132) may be formedwith portions or segments that are removably connected to each other,such that a portion of the frame 120 or a portion of the parts of theframe 120 may be removed and re-connected together.

As depicted in FIG. 3 , a water reservoir 212 may be mounted on bothside surfaces of the frame 120, such that the water reservoirs 212oppose each other. The water reservoirs 212 may be slidably inserted orremoved from the gardening system 100 using rails 214. As depicted inFIG. 3 , a rail 214 is at each of the four corners of the gardeningsystem 100. In some embodiments, one or more rails 214 may housecomponents of the gardening system 100, such as electrical components,imaging components 190, or sensor components 192 of the gardening system100. The side panels 132 cover the outside-facing surface of the waterreservoirs 212.

The gardening system 100 may have a lighting subsystem 154, shown ingreater detail in FIG. 15 . The top panel 132 and a lighting panel 134may cover the top portion of the lighting subsystem 154.

In some embodiments, lighting panel 134 may be formed with portions orsegments that are removably connected to each other, such that thelighting panel 134 or a portion of the lighting panel 134 may be removedand re-connected together. In some embodiments, the lighting panel 134may be separable from the top panel 132, or the top panel 132 mayfunction as the lighting panel 134.

As depicted in FIG. 3 , the top side, left side, and right side of thegardening system 100 may be recessed.

The components of the frame 120 may be manufactured using wood, metal,plastic, and the like.

In some embodiments, the gardening system 100 may be a modular gardeningsystem 100. In such embodiments, one or more components, or a portion ofsuch components, may be removably joined to the other components of thegardening system 100, and additional components may be installed to thegardening system 100 to change the size, dimensions, or configuration ofthe gardening system. In some embodiments, the gardening system 100 maybe positioned adjacent to another gardening system 100 to increase thesize of the gardening system 100. In some embodiments, the gardeningsystem 100 may be stacked on top of another gardening system 100 toincrease the amount surface area for growing plants without increasingthe size of the footprint of the gardening system 100.

For example, the top panel 132, the lighting panel 134, the waterdistribution tray 224, or a portion of these components, may beremovable from the gardening system 100 to stack one gardening system100 on top of another gardening system 100. This may allow taller plantsto grow in the stacked gardening system 100.

The gardening system 100 may be fully assembled or may be a kit that maybe assembled by a user.

In some embodiments, there may be different sizes of gardening system100 to grow different types of plants.

For example, the gardening system 100 may have a “countertop” size. Thegardening system 100 may be dimensioned to receive two trays that mayaccommodate four soil cubes each. This gardening system 100 may be forgrowing short, stubby plants, such as microgreens, leafy greens, orherbs.

For example, the gardening system 100 may have a “coffee table” size.The gardening system 100 may be dimensioned to receive two trays thatmay accommodate four soil cubes each. This gardening system 100 may havesufficient space capacity for growing larger or higher plants, such asSwiss chard, rhubarb, or kale.

For example, the gardening system 100 may have a “large floor” size. Thegardening system 100 may be dimensioned to receive two trays that mayaccommodate four plant cubes. This gardening system 100 may have eachwith the space capacity for growing taller, deeper plants, such astomatoes or root vegetables.

For example, the gardening system 100 may have various heights, such asa short height, medium height, or tall height.

In some embodiments, the gardening system 100 may be designed whilemaking use of the Golden Ratio, including the soil cubes discussedherein, for visual beauty. The dimensions for the gardening system 100may be designed with the Golden Ratio in mind. As depicted in FIG. 4 , agardening system 100 may be 32″×15″. If height is a more importantdimension (e.g. when designing for the gardening system 100 to fit underupper cabinets in a kitchen), the overall dimension may become24.3″×15″. The water volume and plant trays and plant space may decreaseby approximately 20-30%. If the length of the gardening system remainsconstant, then the overall dimension becomes 32″×19.8″. The water volumeand plant trays and plant space may increase by approximately 30-35%.

FIG. 5 depicts three example gardening systems 100A, 100B, and 100C. Thegardening system 100A may be 32″×15″, which is a ratio of 2.13. The soilunit for gardening system 100A may be 5.75″×5.75″. The gardening system100B may be 27″×16.687″, which is a ratio of 1.618. The soil unit forgardening system 100B may be 4.5″×5.75″. The gardening system 100C maybe 24.270″×15″, which is a ratio of 1.618. The soil unit for gardeningsystem 100C may be 3.75″×5.75″.

In some embodiments, based on the dimensions of the gardening system100, in order to maintain a 2 square foot of soil, the depth of thegardening system 100 may be at least 16″.

One or more of the rails 214 may house a component of the gardeningsystem 100. As depicted in FIG. 3 , the upper left rail 214 of thegardening system 100 may be a housing 138 for the controller 102. Acontrol panel 140 may be positioned on the face of the upper left rail214. The control panel 140 may comprise buttons, switches, touchscreens, and the like, for the user to send a control command to thecontroller 102. In some embodiments, the control panel 140 may be placedelsewhere on the gardening system 100, such as on the top surface or oneof the side surfaces, or on another rail 214.

The controller housing 138 may comprise an air vent to vent out hot airthat may be generated in the controller housing 138 during operation ofthe controller 102.

FIG. 5 illustrates a schematic of the gardening system 102. As depicted,gardening system 102 may include an imaging component 190, sensorcomponent 192, processor 191, memory 194, at least one I/O interface196, and at least one network interface 198.

The processor 191 may be, for example, any type of general-purposemicroprocessor or microcontroller, a digital signal processing (DSP)processor, an integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array(FPGA), a reconfigurable processor, a programmable read-only memory(PROM), or any combination thereof.

The memory 194 may include a suitable combination of any type ofcomputer memory that is located either internally or externally such as,for example, random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), compactdisc read-only memory (CDROM), electro-optical memory, magneto-opticalmemory, erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), andelectrically-erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM),Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM) or the like.

Each I/O interface 196 may enable the gardening system 102 tointerconnect with one or more input devices, such as a keyboard, mouse,camera, touch screen and a microphone, or with one or more outputdevices such as a display screen and a speaker.

Each network interface 198 may enable the gardening system 102 tocommunicate with other components, to exchange data with othercomponents, to access and connect to network resources, to serveapplications, and perform other computing applications by connecting toa network.

The gardening system 102 may capture data corresponding to theconditions of the housing 136 and the growth of plants in the gardeningsystem 102. The controller 102 may process the captured data, and basedon the processed data, send a control command to a subsystem of thegardening system 102 to change the conditions of the housing 136, orsend a message to a user device 114. The controller 102 may alsotransmit the captured data to the server 102 for processing the data anddetermining optimal plant growing thresholds, and build intelligence inregards to optimal plant growth.

In some embodiments, the controller 102 may be or comprise a computerchip that controls and manages the gardening system 100. The controller102 may be programmed and updated via software over a networkconnection, such as an internet connection.

Based on the captured data that may be processed by the controller 102,the controller 102 may send a message to a user device 114 (e.g. mobilephone or desktop computer). In some embodiments, an application may bedownloaded to the user device 114, and the message may be viewed on theapplication. The controller 102 may process data captured by the sensorcomponent 192 or imaging component 190, and based on the processed data,the controller 102 may be triggered to send a message to the user device114 (e.g. if the controller 102 determines that a water reservoir 212has run out of water, the controller 102 may be triggered to send amessage to the user device 114 immediately). In some embodiments, thecontroller 102 may periodically send a message to the user device 114.In some embodiments, a user may configure settings of the controller 102using the user device 114 for the controller 102 to send a message tothe user device.

In some embodiments, the messages sent from the controller 102 to theuser device 114 may include, and may not be limited to: water reservoirlevels, humidity levels, image data of the plants growing in thegardening system 100, photosynthesis data, harvest time recommendation,system malfunctions, humidity and temperature of the environment,acceptable environment thresholds based on seeded plant, Wi-Fi uptime(customizable), data upload times, light usage, cost of electricalusage, optimization settings, optimization of biophotons.

The controller 102 may send messages to the user device 114 in severalways, such as a text message, a message accessible through thedownloadable application, and the like.

In some embodiments, if the controller 102, based on captured data,determines that the water in the water reservoir 212 is low or below acertain threshold and need refilling, then the controller 102 mayperiodically send an alert to the user device 114. Accordingly, the usermay be prompted to fill the water reservoir 212.

In some embodiments, if the controller 102, based on captured data,determines that environmental conditions of the gardening system 100 maybe outside of an acceptable threshold, then the controller 102 mayperiodically send an alert to the user device 114.

FIG. 7 is a system diagram of the gardening system 100. As depicted inFIG. 7 , the gardening system 100 comprises the controller 102, lightingsubsystem 154, sensor component 192, imaging component 190, and a fan202.

As depicted in FIG. 7 , the controller comprises the processor 191, thememory 194, a general purpose input/output interface 196, a voltageregulator 200, and a light controller 204.

To use the gardening system 100, the gardening system 100 is pluggedinto an electrical outlet, which may provide electrical power to thegardening system 100. For example, the electrical power may be 12 voltsin 3 amperes. The voltage regulator 200 may be electrically coupled tothe processor 191 and control the amount of electrical energy receivedby the processor 191.

The controller 102 may be in data communication with the sensorcomponent 192 and the imaging component 190. In some embodiments, thesensor components 192 may comprise water level sensors, ambient lightsensors, and humidity and temperature sensors. In some embodiments, theimaging component 190 may comprise a visible camera or an infraredcamera. The sensor component 192 and the imaging component 190 mayregularly or periodically capture data to be processed by the processor191. In some embodiments, the controller 102 may send a control commandto the sensor component 192 and imaging component 190 to trigger thesensor component 192 and imaging component 190 to capture data.

The sensor component 192 and imaging component 190 may send captureddata to the processor 191 to be processed. The processing algorithm usedby the processor 191 to process the data from the sensor component 192and imaging component 190 may be stored in memory 194. The data capturedby the sensor component 192 and imaging component 190 may be stored inthe memory 194. The processed data from the processor 191 may be storedin the memory 194.

The sensor component 192 and imaging component 190 may be in datacommunication with the general purpose input/output 196. The generalpurpose input/output 196 may be in data communication with the processor191, and various components of the gardening system 100, such asindicator lights. Based on the data received by the processor 191, theprocessor 191 may send a control command to the various components ofthe gardening system 100 via the general purpose input output 196. Forexample, based on processing data from the water level sensors of thesensor component 192, if the processor 191 determines that the waterlevel for one or more water reservoirs 212 is below a certain threshold,the processor 191 may send a control command to a low water level LEDlight for the corresponding water reservoir 212. As another example, ifthe processor 191 determines that it is connected to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth,then it may send a control command to a Bluetooth pairing LED light or aWi-Fi enabled light.

The controller 102 may control the amount of light emitted by thelighting subsystem 154 or the wavelength of the light emitted by thelighting subsystem 154. The ambient light sensor of the sensor component192 may capture data corresponding to the amount of light in the housing136. The processor 191 may receive that data from the ambient lightsensor, and may process that data to determine the amount of light inthe housing 136. Based on this determination, the processor 191 may senda control command to the light controller 204. The light controller 204may be configured to control the intensity of light emitted by thelighting subsystem 154 and the wavelength of the light emitted by thelighting subsystem 154. As depicted in FIG. 7 , the light controller 204may control two sets of LED lights. In some embodiments, the lightcontroller 204 may control one or more sets of light emitters. Asdepicted in FIG. 7 , as an example, one LED light may be a 28 voltlight, so up to four LED lights may be connected in series.

As depicted in FIG. 7 , the gardening system 100 may comprise a fan 202.The controller 102 may send a control command to the fan 202 based onthe controller 102 determining the temperature of the housing 136 fromdata captured by a temperature sensor, to change the temperature of thehousing 136.

The controller 102 may connect to other devices using Wi-Fi orBluetooth, as depicted in FIG. 7 .

As depicted in FIG. 3 , one or more trays 142 may be placed in thehousing 136 of the gardening system 100. When the tray 142 is placed inthe housing 136, the tray 142 may rest on the water distribution tray224. The tray 142 may support one or more soil units 260 with seeds forgrowing plants, and may position the soil unit 260 in the housing 136such that the soil unit 260 may receive water from the water subsystem210, and that the soil unit 260 may receive sufficient light from thelighting subsystem 154.

In some embodiments, there may be two trays 142 received in thegardening system 100. The tray 142 may have one or more guiding ridgesor rails along the inner surface of the tray 142 for inserting the soilunit 260 into the tray 142.

The tray 142 may be placed in the housing 136. In some embodiments, thehousing may have one or more guide rails for sliding the tray 142 in andout of the housing 136.

The tray 142 may be in fluid communication with the water source of thegardening system 100 via the water distribution tray 224 and the waterwicking coil 238.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the tray 142. FIG. 9 to FIG. 14 arefront, back, left, right, top and bottom views of the tray 142,respectively. As depicted in FIG. 8 , the tray 142 may have a generallyrectangular shape. In some embodiments, the tray 142 may have adifferent shape, such as circle, triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon,and the like. The tray 142 may fit into the housing 136 of the gardeningsystem 100 to position the soil units 260 and seeds in the housing 136of the gardening system 100.

The tray 142 may be made with plastic, metal, wood, and the like. Thetray 142 may be manufactured using extruding, blow moulding, injectionmoulding, machining, casting, forging, and the like.

The tray 142 may comprise a hand grip 144 on each of the front and backsides of the tray 142. A user may engage the hand grip 144 to carry thetray 142, and move the tray 142 in or out of the housing 136 of thegardening system 100. There may be hand grip 144 on the front and backside of the tray 142, so the tray 142 may be inserted or removed fromeither the front or back side of the gardening system 100.

The tray 142 may comprise one or more aeration orifices 146 to promoteair flow to the soil in the tray 142. The orifices 146 may bemanufactured during manufacturing of the tray 142, or may be punched outor cut out after the tray 142 is manufactured. As depicted in FIG. 8 ,there may be aeration orifices 146 along the side surfaces and bottomsurface of the tray 142. The aeration orifices 146 may be generallyevenly spaced. In some embodiments, the aeration orifices 146 may beunevenly spaced on the tray 142.

The tray 142 may comprise one or more wicking coil orifices 148. Asdepicted in FIG. 8 , which is configured to support four soil units 260,there are four wicking coil orifices 148. In some embodiments, there maybe one or more wicking coil orifices 148. The wicking coil orifice 148may be positioned on the tray 142, such that when the tray 142 is placedin the housing 136 and rests on the water distribution tray 224, thewicking coil orifice 148 is aligned with a wicking coil 238 that may beplaced in a channel 228 of the water distribution tray 224. With thewicking coil orifice 148 aligned in such a manner, when the wicking coil238 placed in the channel 228, the channel 228 may be in fluidcommunication with the interior of the tray 142. If there is soil in thetray 142, the channel 228 may be in fluid communication with the soil.

The tray 142 may comprise one or more rails 150. The rail 150 may beconfigured to promote proper placement of soil units 260 in the tray260. A soil unit 260 may be slid into the tray 142 using one or more ofthe rails 150. As depicted in FIG. 8 , there may be a rail 150 on eachside of the tray 142 and central rails 150, such that the tray 142 mayreceive four soil units 260, each soil unit 260 approximatelyone-quarter in size of the tray 142. In some embodiments, there may bemore or fewer rails 150 and arranged to promote proper placement of oneor more soil units 260.

The tray 142 may comprise legs 152. As depicted in FIG. 8 , the legs 152may extend outwardly from the bottom surface of the tray 142. The legs152 may be received in corresponding recesses 232 of the waterdistribution tray 224 to align the tray 142, stabilize the tray 142, orkeep the tray 142 in place when supported on the water subsystem 210.

The tray 142 may comprise one or more alignment slots 153. As depictedin FIG. 8 , the tray 142 may have a slot 153 at each corner. The slot153 may receive a corresponding peg 234 of the water distribution tray224 to align the tray 142, stabilize the tray 142, or keep the tray 142in place when supported on the water subsystem 210.

In some embodiments, the depth of the tray 142 may be different based onthe types of plants grown using the tray 142. For example, for plantswith shorter roots, the depth of the tray 142 may be 10 cm deep. Asanother example, the depth of the tray 142 may be 20 cm deep for growingcarrots.

The gardening system 100 may comprise a lighting subsystem 154 forcontrolling the amount of light and type of light that is illuminated inthe housing. As depicted in FIG. 15 , the lighting subsystem 154 may bemounted to the frame 120 and direct light into the housing 136 of thegardening system. The lighting subsystem 154 may be mounted on the topside of the gardening system 100, as depicted in FIG. 16 , or may bemounted on another side of the gardening system 100. For example, one ormore light sources 158 may be mounted on the left side of the gardeningsystem 100, the top side of the gardening system 100, the right side ofthe gardening system 100, or the bottom side of the gardening system100, or a combination thereof.

The lighting subsystem 154 may comprise a lighting housing 156. Thelighting housing 156 may support the components of the lightingsubsystem 154. As depicted in FIG. 15 , the lighting subsystem 154 mayhave two recesses to support two light sources 158. The light sources158 may be controlled by the controller 102 to emit differentintensities of light, such as by dimming or brightening, and differentwavelengths of light, which may range from ultraviolet light to infraredlight, or another wavelength of light. In some embodiments, a firstlight source 158 may emit a first wavelength of light, and a secondlight source 158 may emit a second wavelength of light. The lightingsubsystem 154 may comprise one or more light sources 158. The lightemitted by the one or more light sources 158 may illuminate the housing136, such that plants growing in the housing 136 may receive light fromthe light sources 158.

The lighting subsystem 154 may comprise a light sensor 160 that maydetect the amount of light in the housing 136 or may detect the type oflight in the housing 136. In some embodiments, there may be one or morelight sensors 160, with one or more light sensors 160 configured todetect the amount of light in the housing 136, and one or more otherlight sensors 160 configured to detect the types of light in the housing136. As depicted in FIG. 15 , the lighting subsystem 154 may have alight sensor 160 that may be positioned generally in the middle of thehousing subsystem 154 between the two light sources 158. In someembodiments, the one or more light sensors 160 may be positioned ono thegardening system 100 such that the one or more light sensors 160 maydetect the amount of light in the housing 136 or may detect the type oflight in the housing 136.

The data captured by the light sensors 160 may be transmitted to thecontroller 102, and the controller 102 may process the data to determinethe amount of light and type of light in the housing 136. Based on thedetermination, the controller 102 may send a control command, forexample, to the light controller 204 depicted in FIG. 7 , to change theintensity of the light emitted by the lighting subsystem 154 or the typeof light emitted by the lighting subsystem 154. For example, if thecontroller 102 determines that external light (e.g. light from the sun)is shining into the housing 136, the controller 102 may send a controlcommand to the light controller 204 to reduce the intensity of the lightemitted by the light sources 158, such as by turning them off or dimmingthem.

In some embodiments, the lighting subsystem 154 may support lightsources 158, which may be LED grow lights. The light sources 158 may bemounted on the top side of the gardening system 100, and directed intothe growing bed area of the housing 136. Where a plant is in the housing136, the LED grow lights may be pointing down towards the plants abovethe canopy of the soil and plants.

The light sources 158 may emit a full spectrum of light, which may beconfigured to mimic the sun's spectrum of light. The light sources 158may emit light having wavelengths that may range from nanometres for UVlight to millimeters or Far Red, including infrared. The light sources158 may emit light having wavelengths outside the nanometer tomillimeter range.

When the light sources 160 are turned on, the controller 102 maydetermine the spectral wavelength of the light to emit during a schedulethat the light sources 160 are on. The schedule may be called the“system day”.

When the lighting subsystem 154 turns on, the controller 102 may send acontrol command to the light controller 204 for the light sources 160 toemit light with a wavelength that may mimic a red colour in the earlyperiod or the start of the system day schedule, which may be the “day”of the system day. During the middle of the system day, the controller102 may send a control command to the light controller 204 for the lightsources 160 to emit a light with a wavelength that may mimic a whitecolour. During the end of the system day, the controller 102 may send acontrol command to the light controller 204 for the light sources 160 toemit light with a wavelength that may mimic a redder colour.Accordingly, the controller 102 may automatically change the intensityof light or wavelength of light emitted from the lighting subsystem 154.This feature may be overridden to other schedules, and may be turned onor off.

The gardening system 100 may comprise a photosensing mechanism that mayadjust the amount of light emitted by the lighting system 154 based onthe light detected in the housing 136. For example, the gardening system100 may be placed proximate a window, and external sunlight may shineinto the housing 136. The light sensor 160 may capture data that maycorrespond to spectral wavelengths of sunlight that may be usable togrow the plant in the housing. The captured data may be transmitted tothe controller 102, and the controller 102 may determine that there maybe sufficient usable sunlight shining on the plants in the housing 136.The controller 102 may send a control command to the light controller204 to dim the light sources 158 or turn off the light sources 158. Thecontroller 102 may send a control command to the light controller 204 tobrighten the light sources 158 or turn on the light sources 158 if itlater determines that, based on captured data from the light sensor 160,that the light conditions in the housing 136 has changed. In someembodiments, based on the data captured by the light sensor 160, thecontroller 102 may send a control command corresponding to a message toa user device 114. The message may be viewed on the user device 114,which may prompt a user to change the lighting conditions in the housing136. In some embodiments, the user may change the lighting conditions inthe housing 136 using the control panel 140. The user may press a buttonor switch on the control panel 140 to change the lighting conditions inthe housing 136. In some embodiments, the user may change the lightingconditions in the housing 136 using the user device 114 (e.g. smartphoneor computer), for example, using a downloaded application. The user maysend a control command from the user device 114 to the controller 102 tochange the lighting conditions in the housing 136. When sending acontrol command from the user device 114, the user may send the controlcommand by remote access, and a timer may be available to turn on orturn off the gardening system 100.

FIG. 17 is a schematic of the lighting subsystem 154 illuminating thehousing 136 of the gardening system 100.

In some embodiments, the light source 158 (e.g. LED lights) may providea spectrum of light that may be associated to the daily spectrum oflight that the sun emits for the purposes of growing plants. Based ondata captured by the gardening system 100, the system 10 may learn howthe light sources 158 may be optimized for optimal bioavailableessentials. The light source 158, in addition to other features of thesystem 10, may mimic the sun by changing the light spectrum like the sunchanges its light spectrum throughout the natural day. For example, thelight source 158 may start the “system day” with a red spectrum, turn towhite as the “system day” progresses, and then change to red near theend of the “system day”. The controller 102 may dynamically adjust theintensity of light or wavelength of light emitted by the light source158 based on data captured by the sensor component 192.

In some embodiments, the light sources 158 may emit light havingultraviolet to infrared wavelengths found in the sun spectrum. In someembodiments, one light source 158 may emit visible light, and one ormore other light sources 158 may emit light having ultraviolet toinfrared wavelengths found in the sun spectrum.

In some embodiments, the LED lights may be enhanced with ultraviolet andinfrared wavelengths found in the sun spectrum.

FIG. 18 is a schematic of the water distribution system 210 in explodedview.

The gardening system 100 may comprise a water subsystem 210 to provide asource of water to the plants being grown in the housing 136. The watersubsystem 210 may comprise one or more water reservoirs 212, one or morerails 214, and a water distribution tray 224. As depicted in FIG. 3 ,the water subsystem 210 may have more than one water reservoir 212. Thefirst water reservoir 212 may be mounted on the left side of thegardening system 100, and the second water reservoir 212 may be mountedon the right side of the gardening system. In some embodiments, thewater reservoirs 212 may be mounted to the middle portion of thegardening system 100 and divide the housing 136 into a first housing anda second housing.

In some embodiments, the water reservoir 212 may be 2″×14″×10″ and maycontain approximately 3-4 litres of water.

In some embodiments, the water reservoir 212 may have a different size.There may be larger water reservoirs 212 for larger gardening systems100 or smaller water reservoirs 212 for smaller gardening systems 100.

To fill up the water reservoir 212 or release water from the waterreservoir 212, the water reservoir 212 may comprise a removable springvalve 216. The spring valve 216 may be removable, like a cap, and thewater reservoir 212 may be filled using, for example, a faucet or tap.The spring valve 216 may be positioned near the bottom of the waterreservoir 212 when the water reservoir 212 is connected to the gardeningsystem 100. When the spring valve 216 is secured to the water reservoir212, and when the spring of the spring valve 216 is compressed, thespring valve 216 may open to allow for fluid communication between theinterior of the water reservoir 212 and the exterior of the waterreservoir 212 through the spring valve 216. For example, when the waterreservoir 212 is filled and the spring of the spring valve 216 iscompressed, the water may flow through the spring valve 216 and out thewater reservoir 212.

The body of the water reservoir 212 may define a channel 213 that mayreceive a guide 215 of the rail 214 for sliding the water reservoir 212into and out of the gardening system 100.

In some embodiments, the water reservoir 212 may have a spring valve 216and a cap that are separate from each other, such that the spring valve216 is not removed the water reservoir 212 to fill the water reservoir.The cap may be removed to fill the water reservoir 212.

The water reservoir 212 may have a hand grip 236 for holding the waterreservoir 212, such as when moving the water reservoir 212 in and out ofthe gardening system 100.

The rails 214 of the water subsystem 210 may be removably connected tothe frame 120, using, for example, screws, clips, fasteners, couplings,and the like, or may be friction-fit or snap-fit to the frame 120, suchthat the rails 214 may be connected to the frame 120, removed from theframe 120, and re-connected to the frame. As depicted in FIG. 3 , thegardening system 100 may have four rails 214, each rail removablyconnected to one of the four corners of the frame 120 of the gardeningsystem 100.

The body of the rail 214 may define a guide 215 that may be received ina corresponding channel 213 of the water reservoir 212 for sliding thewater reservoir 212 into and out of the gardening system 100.

As depicted in FIG. 18 , the rails 214 may have a body that extendsalong a longitudinal axis, and have a protrusion at one of the end ofthe rails 214. The protrusion may prevent the water reservoir 212 fromsliding out of the other side of the gardening system 100 when it isbeing slidably positioned in the gardening system 100. When two rails214 are joined to the frame 120, the two rails 214 may guide the waterreservoir 212 as the water reservoir 212 is slidably inserted orslidably removed from the gardening system 100.

In some embodiments, one or more rails 214 may have a water nozzle 218that protrudes from the rail 214. There may be a seal, for example, anO-ring 220, installed on the water nozzle 218. The water nozzle 218 mayengage with the spring valve 216 to compress the spring of the springvalve 216 to fluidly communicate the water reservoir 212 and the nozzle218. When the nozzle 218 is engaged with the spring valve 216, theO-ring 220 may seal the interface between the spring valve 216 and thenozzle 218 such that the water does not leak through the interface.

In some embodiments, when the nozzle 218 and the spring valve 216 areengaged, the engagement may create a “click” sound that may indicatethat the nozzle 218 and the spring valve 216 are engaged.

As depicted in FIG. 22 , one end of a tube 222 may be connected to thenozzle 218 using a fitting. The second end of the tube 222 may beconnected to a port 226 of the water distribution tray 224 to fluidlyconnect the nozzle with the port 226. Accordingly, when the nozzle 218of the rail 214 is engaged with the spring valve 216 of the waterreservoir 212, and the tube 222 fluidly connecting the nozzle 218 andthe port 226 of the water distribution tray 224, the interior of thewater reservoir 212 in fluid communication with the port 226 of thewater distribution tray 224, through the spring valve 216, the nozzle218, and the tube 222.

FIG. 19 is a schematic of the water distribution tray 224 of the watersubsystem 210. The water distribution tray 224 may be connected to thebottom side of the frame 120 of the gardening system 100. The waterdistribution tray 224 may define the surface on which the one or moretrays 142 holding the soil and plants rest.

The water distribution tray 224 of the water subsystem 210 may beremovably connected to the frame 120, using, for example, screws, clips,fasteners, couplings, and the like, or may be friction-fit or snap-fitto the frame 120, such that the water distribution tray 224 may beconnected to the frame 120, removed from the frame 120, and re-connectedto the frame. In some embodiments, the water distribution tray 224 maybe formed with portions or segments that are removably connected to eachother, such that a portion of the water distribution tray may beremovably connected to the frame 120.

The water distribution tray 224 may comprise a port 226 that may befluidly connected with the nozzle 218 using the tube 222. There may be aport 222 for each water reservoir 212 that may be present in thegardening system 212. As depicted in FIG. 21 and FIG. 23 , the port 222may be in fluid communication with the channel 228 of the waterdistribution tray 224.

The water distribution tray 224 may define one or more channels 228 forreceiving water from the water reservoir 212. As the water flows fromthe water reservoir 212 through the port 226, the water flows into thechannels 228. As the water continues to flow into the channels 228, thewater level in the channels 228 may increase until it reaches the waterlevel reaches the top of the port 226. As the water reservoir 212, rail214, and channel 228 define an air-tight system when the water level inthe channel 228 reaches the top of the port 226, no air may flow intothe water reservoir 212, such that no more water flows out of thereservoir 212 and into the channel 228.

As depicted in FIG. 19 , the water distribution tray 224 may define twochannels 228 that may be fluidly isolated from each other. A first waterreservoir 212 may provide water for a first channel 228, and a secondwater reservoir 212 may provide water for a second channel 228. Byisolating the two channels 228, the amount of water provided to theplants on the two sides of the housing 136 may be controlled. In someembodiments, the water distribution tray 224 may define one or morechannels 228, some of which may be fluidly connected or fluidlyseparated from each other.

A wicking coil 238 may be placed in the channel 228 to fluidlycommunicate the channel 228 with soil housed in the tray 142 that isplaced in the housing 136 of the gardening system 100. In someembodiments, one or more rounded cavities 230 may be defined along thechannels 228, as depicted in FIG. 23 , for receiving the wicking coil238. The cavity 230 may be shaped generally like the shape of thewicking coil. While FIG. 23 depicts the cavity 230 as a rounded cavity,the cavity 230 may have a triangular shape, rectangular shape, squareshape, polygonal shape, irregular shape, honeycomb shape, and the like.The cavity 230 may be positioned along the channel 228 such that awicking coil 238 placed in the cavity 230 may fluidly communicate thechannel 228 with soil that is positioned above the cavity 230. Forexample, the cavity 230 may be positioned along the channel 228 to alignwith the wicking coil orifice 148 of the tray 142 when the tray 142 ispositioned in the housing.

The water distribution tray 224 may define one or more recesses 232. Asdepicted in FIG. 18 , the recesses 232 may extend downwardly from thetop surface of the water distribution tray 224. The recesses 232 mayreceive corresponding legs 152 of the tray 142 to align the tray 142,stabilize the tray 142, or keep the tray 142 in place when supported onthe water subsystem 210. As depicted in FIG. 19 , the recesses 232 alongthe sides of the water distribution tray 224 may be narrower than therecesses 232 along the middle of the water distribution tray 224. Therecesses 232 along the sides of the water distribution tray 224 mayreceive a leg 152 from one tray 142, while the recesses 232 along themiddle may receive legs 152 from two trays 142.

The water distribution tray 224 may comprise one or more pegs 234. Asdepicted in FIG. 18 , there may be four pegs 234 positioned at the backof the water distribution tray 224. The pegs 234 may be received in theslots 153 of the tray 142 to tray 142, stabilize the tray 142, or keepthe tray 142 in place when supported on the water subsystem 210. In someembodiments, the water distribution tray 224 may comprise one or morepegs 234 along the back of the tray 224, along the front of the tray224, or both the front and back of the tray 224.

In some embodiments, the water distribution system 210 may be a passivehydrology system, in that there may be no pump, and gravity acts uponthe water for the water to flow from the water reservoir 212 to thechannel 228 of the water distribution tray 224.

In some embodiments, the water distribution system 210 may be an activehydrology system, in that there may be a pump that pumps water from thewater reservoir 212 to the channel 228 of the water distribution tray224.

FIG. 20 is a schematic of the water system 210. FIG. 20 depicts thewater reservoir 212 sliding along the guide 215 of the rail 214.

FIG. 21 is a schematic of the water system 210. FIG. 21 depicts thespring valve 216 engaged with the nozzle 218 of the rail 214.Accordingly, the water reservoir 212 is in fluid communication with thechannel 228 through the spring valve 216, the nozzle 218, the tube 222,and the port 226.

FIG. 22 is a schematic of the water system 210. FIG. 22 depicts acutaway view of the rail 214, illustrating one end of the tube 222connected to the nozzle 218.

FIG. 23 is a schematic of the water system 210. The water reservoir 212is engaged with the rail 214 and is in fluid communication with thechannel 228.

To fluidly communicate the channel 228 with soil in the housing 136, oneor more wicking coils 238 may be placed in the channel 228. In someembodiments, the wicking coils 238 may be placed in the rounded cavity230 along the channel 228, as depicted in FIG. 24 . The wicking coil 238may have a cylindrical shape, but may have other shapes, such astriangular, square, rectangular, polygonal, or an irregular shape. Thewicking coil 238 may be made of a material that may draw water from thechannel 228 to the top surface of the wicking coil 238 using capillaryaction. For example, the wicking coil 238 may be made with a capillaryblanket, capillary sheet, or felt.

In some embodiments, the wicking coil 238 may be a single body made withthe material that may move water using capillary action. In someembodiments, the wicking coil 238 may be a rolled material, as depictedin FIG. 24 .

FIG. 25 is a schematic of the water system 210 with a tray 142 placed onthe water distribution tray 224. As depicted in FIG. 25 , the cavity 230and the wicking coil orifice 148 are aligned such that the wicking coil238 placed in the channel 228 extends from the channel 228 through thewicking coil orifice 148 and into the interior of the tray 142.

FIG. 25 depicts a soil unit cover 264 of a soil unit 260 received in thetray 142. The soil unit cover 260 may be guided into the tray 142 by therails 150 of the tray 142. When the soil unit cover 264 is in the tray142 and the wicking coil 238 is placed in the channel 228, the bottom ofthe soil unit cover 264 may contact the wicking coil 238, such that thechannel 228 is in fluid communication with the bottom of the soil unitcover 264 through the wicking coil 238. The material of the bottom ofthe soil unit cover 264 may be the same as the material of the wickingcoil 238, such that water drawn by the wicking coil 238 from the channel228 by capillary action may continue to flow to the bottom of the soilunit cover 264. Where the soil unit cover 264 holds soil, the water fromthe channel 228 may flow through the wicking coil 238, the bottom of thesoil unit cover 264, and into the soil.

The wicking coil 238 may fluidly communicate the water in the channel228 that is recessed in the water distribution tray 224 with soil thatis contained in the tray 142 that is inside the housing 136. The watersubsystem 210 and the components of the gardening subsystem 210described herein may allow plants to be grown using soil. By being ableto use soil in the gardening system 100 to grow plants, the plants maybe healthy and the bioavailability of the essentials of the plants maybe increased.

As described herein, by using soil when growing the plants in thegardening system 100, the plants may be more nutritious, and thenutrients of the plant may be more bioavailable to the human cell.

To add water to the water reservoir 212, the water reservoir 212 may beslidably removed from the gardening system 100 and filled. Then waterreservoir 212 may be slidably inserted into the gardening system 100using the guides 215 of the rails 214. As the spring valve 216 ispositioned towards the bottom of the water reservoir 212, gravity willtend to draw the water out of the spring valve 216. In some embodiments,upon the engagement of the nozzle 218 of the rail 214 and the springvalve 216 of the water reservoir 212, the water reservoir 212 may be“clicked” in place.

Soil that may be in the tray 142, which may be supported on the waterdistribution tray 224, may be saturated automatically.

When the spring valve 216 and the nozzle 218 are engaged, the waterreservoir 212 may be in fluid communication with the channel 228 of thewater distribution tray 224 through the spring valve 216, the nozzle218, the tube 222, and the port 226. The water may flow from the waterreservoir 212 and begin to fill the channel 228.

As the channel 228 begins to fill up, the wicking coils 238 placed inthe channel 228, such as at cavities 230, draw the water using capillaryaction towards the housing 136. The wicking coil 238 may be in contactwith the bottom of the soil unit cover 264. The water may flow from thechannel 228 through the wicking coil 238 and through the bottom of thesoil unit cover 264 into the soil that is contained in the soil unitcover 264.

In some embodiments, the amount of capillary action based on thesaturation of the wicking coil 238, the bottom of the soil unit cover264, the soil, or a combination thereof.

The saturation of the soil may be automatically based on the humidity orsaturation level of the soil. For example, the humidity or saturationlevel of the soil may be 30%.

One of the sensors of the sensor component 192 may capture datacorresponding to the humidity of the housing 136 or saturation of thesoil. The controller 102 may process that data to determine the humidityof the housing 136 or saturation of the soil. Based on thisdetermination, the controller 102 may send a control command to ahumidity controller or humidity source or emitter to change the humidityof the housing 136. Accordingly, the saturation of the soil may beautomatically based on the humidity or saturation level of the soil.

When the soil is saturated, water may stop flowing from the waterreservoir 212 to the channel 228 of the water distribution system 224.

The water subsystem 210 may comprise a pump for controlling the flow ofwater from the water reservoir 212 to the water distribution tray 224.In some embodiments, the pump may be positioned along the fluid flowpath defined from the water source to the water distribution tray 224.For example, the pump may be positioned in the rail 214 downstream ofthe nozzle 218 and upstream of the port 226. As another example, thepump may be positioned in the water reservoir 212. As yet anotherexample, the pump may be positioned in the water distribution tray 224.

The sensor component 192 or the imaging component 190 may be configuredto capture data corresponding to the saturation of the soil in thegardening system 100. Based on this data, the controller 102 maydetermine that the plants growing in the soil or plants should bestressed, for example, such that the sensor component 192 or the imagingcomponent 190 may capture data corresponding to the health of the plantswhen the soil or plants are stressed. The controller 102 may send acontrol command to the pump to activate the pump and to pump water intothe water distribution tray 224 to saturate the soil in the gardeningsystem.

The sensor component 192 of the gardening system 100 may comprisesensors configured to capture data corresponding to the water levels ofthe water reservoirs 212.

In some embodiments, the water level sensors may be Hall Effect sensorsthat capture data using magnetic sensing. One or more water levelsensors may be used to detect the water level in the water reservoirs212. A float assembly having a magnet with a magnetic field may beplaced in the water reservoir 212 that may be detected by the halleffect sensors, and the hall effect sensors may capture datacorresponding to the position of the magnetic field of the magnet, andthe controller 102 may process that data to determine the water level inthe water reservoirs 212.

In some embodiments, the water level sensors may be configured forcapacitive touch. FIG. 26 is a schematic of a water level sensorconfigured for capacitive touch mounted to a water reservoir. The waterlevel sensors may comprise a sensing pad that may be mechanically andelectrically coupled with the water reservoir 212. The water levelsensors may be in data communication with the controller 102 to transmitcaptured data from the water level sensors to the controller 102.

In some embodiments, the gardening system 100 may comprise water levelsensors may be configured to capture data corresponding to the waterlevels in the soil of plants growing in the gardening system 100.

In some embodiments, the gardening system 100 may be connected to anexternal water source using, for example, a water connection. A conduit,hose, fitting or a coupling may be used to connect the gardening system100 to the external water source. The external water source may be thewater source of a residence (e.g. water main), or may be a water tank“back pack” or external water tank. The water tank “back pack” may beused if the gardening system 100 may not be connected to the water main,but the user may be away from the gardening system 100 for an extendedperiod of time, such that the water reservoir 212 may not be refilled bythe user (e.g. user on vacation).

The gardening system 100 may comprise a pump for pumping water from theexternal water source to the water reservoir 212. The pump may becontrolled by the controller 102, based on the water level of the waterreservoir 212 detected by the controller 102.

When multiple gardening systems 100 are used together (e.g. stackedtogether), the conduits or hoses that connect the water source to thegardening systems 100 may be daisy chain connected, such that a singleexternal water source (e.g. water main, water tank, large reservoir) mayprovide water to multiple gardening systems 100.

The gardening system 100 may comprise a control panel 140. The controlpanel 140 may comprise buttons, switches, screens, touch screens, andthe like, for the user to view one or more conditions related to thegardening system 100, or to send a control command to the controller 102to change a condition of the gardening system 100.

In some embodiments, the control panel 140 may comprise one or morebuttons and lights. For example, there may be a button corresponding toturning the gardening system 100 on or off, a button corresponding toturning the lighting system 154 on or off, or a button for turning theWi-Fi or Bluetooth compatibility on or off. There may be a logo or alight corresponding to whether the water level in the water reservoir212 is low. The light may be turned on by the controller 102 when thecontroller 102 determines that the water level in the water reservoir212 is low. There may be a logo or a light corresponding to whether thegardening system 100 is connected to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

In some embodiments, the control panel 140 may comprise a screen. Thecontroller 102 may send a control command for displaying buttons,lights, or menu options on the screen. There may be a knob, switch, orbuttons for scrolling through the screen. In some embodiments, thescreen may be a touch screen. The user may use the control panel 140 tosend a control command to the controller 102 for changing the conditionsof the gardening system 100.

FIG. 27 is a schematic of the gardening system 100 in communication witha user device 114. The gardening system 100 may comprise sensorcomponent 192 and imaging component 190 for capturing data of thegardening system 100. In some embodiments, the controller 102 mayprocess the captured data and change a condition of the gardeningsystem. In some embodiments, the captured data from the gardening system100 may be transmitted to the server 104 for storage, processing, oranalysis. In some embodiments, the captured data from the gardeningsystem 100 may be transmitted to the cloud for storage, processing, oranalysis.

The data captured by the sensor component 192 and imaging component 190may vary based on the overall environment that the gardening system 100is placed in (e.g. the data may vary from residence to residence thatthe gardening system 100 is placed in). The data captured by the sensorcomponent 192 and imaging component 190 may be processed to continuallyimprove the ability of the system 10 to manage the growth of plants andmay improve the health of plants grown in the system 10.

The system 10 (e.g. the server 104) may process the data captured by thesensor component 192 and imaging component 190 to determine optimalplant growing thresholds. The server 104 may compare newly captured datawith the optimal growing thresholds, and may send adjustmentrecommendations to an application (e.g. downloaded on a smartphone orcomputer) for manual adjustments of a condition of the gardening system100, or may send a control command to the controller 102 to dynamicallyor automatically adjust a condition of the gardening system 100.

For example, based on data captured by the sensor component 192 andimaging component 190, the server 104 may determine an optimal amount ofoxygen threshold in the gardening system 100 for growing healthy plants.The server 104 may compare newly captured data from the sensor component192 and imaging component 190 with the optimal amount of oxygenthreshold, and may send a control command to the controller 102 for thecontroller 102 to send a control command to, for example, an oxygenemitter, to change the amount of oxygen in the gardening system 100 toreflect the optimal amount of oxygen threshold.

The data captured by the sensor component 192 and imaging component 190may be stored in the cloud. The controller 102 or server 104 may processthe data to understand that in certain conditions, some plants may growbetter, while other plants may not grow better. The controller 102 orserver 104 may transmit a control command corresponding torecommendations to adjust variables of the environment, such astemperature, humidity, lighting, or colour.

The gardening system 100 may comprise an imaging component 190 forcapturing data corresponding to images of contents in the housing 136(e.g. soil and plants).

The controller 102 or server 104 may send a control command to theimaging component 190 for capturing image data of contents in thehousing 136 (e.g. soil and plants). The controller 102 or server 104 mayreceive the image data captured by the imaging component 190. The imagedata may be stored in memory or may be transmitted to the controller 102or server 104 for storage or processing. In some embodiments, the imagedata may correspond to photosynthesis activity of the plants, how colourof the plant (e.g. how green it is), chlorophyll levels, the inclusion,availability, or presence of certain minerals, taste, and the like. Theimage data may correspond to the health of the plant, or the ability ofthe nutrients of the plant to be processed by a user.

In some embodiments, the controller 102 or server 104 may pre-processthe image data to determine if the image data corresponds to obscuredobjects. If the controller 102 or server 104 determines that the imagedata corresponds to obscured objects, the controller 102 or server 104may send a control command to the imaging component 190 to re-captureimage data.

The imaging component 190 may comprise one or more sensors or camerasconfigured to detect one or more conditions in the housing 136. Theimaging component 190, as depicted in FIG. 27 , may be mounted above thecanopy of the plants and may capture image data of the contents in thehousing 136. The imaging component 190 may capture image datacorresponding to salient information in the gardening system 100, whichmay include general activity of the growing bed environment, saturationof soil, pictures of plants indicating plant health, photosynthesisactivity of the plants, and mineralization of the plant from the leaves.The imaging component 190 may be, for example, cameras, sensors, and maycollect image data in the form of video, pictures, histogram data, invarious formats. The image data may have particular characteristicstracked in the form of associated metadata, such as shutter speeds,camera positions, imaging spectra, reference illuminationcharacteristics, etc. In some embodiments, the imaging components mayprovide an initial pre-processing to perform preliminary featurerecognition, optical character recognition, etc.

The imaging component 190 may capture image data continuously orperiodically. In some embodiments, the imaging component 190 may captureimage data in a time lapsed manner that may be sent by the user as oneapplication.

The controller 102 or server 104 may be configured to receive image datafrom the imaging component 190 and may extract features from the imagedata. The controller 104 or server 102 may segment or pre-process theimage data to remove noise, artifacts, background imagery, or foregroundimagery. For example, the controller 102 or server 104 may be configuredto visually identify the pixels or regions of interest (e.g., by using acombination of depth data and similarity/size information). Thecontroller 102 or server 104 may draw a “bounding box” over a portion ofthe image data, indicative of the pixels to be analyzed. The imageprocessing engine 204 may extract features from the bounding boxes and,for example, create a compressed transform representative of a subset ofthe image information.

The controller 102 or server 104 may be configured to apply recognitiontechniques to the image data, which may be compressed data or a subsetof the captured image data, to determine the health of the soil orplants growing in the gardening system 100. The controller 102 or server104 may use a classifier to determine how well the image datacorresponds to various reference templates (e.g. general activity on thegrowing bed environment, saturation of soil, plant pictures indicatingplant health, photosynthesis activity, mineralization of plant, etc.).In some embodiments, the classifier provides an estimated value and aconfidence score (e.g., a margin of error). Where the image data may notbe processed to make a determination of the condition of the soil orplant with a sufficiently high confidence score, a notification may beprovided to either request re-imaging with varied characteristics, or togenerate an error value. For example, features of the soil or plant maybe poorly captured due to changes in ambient lighting or environmentalshadows, and the notification from the controller 102 or server 104 tothe lighting subsystem 154 may control the intensity of the light orwavelength of the light emitted by the lighting subsystem 154 to obtaina more useful set of image data.

The controller 102 or server 104 may include tracked linkages andassociations for processing image data captured by the imaging component190 to determine a relationship between a particular reference featureset (e.g. the reference feature set may correspond to optimal plantgrowing thresholds). The controller 102 or server 104 may includeweighted rules whose weights may dynamically vary based on updatedfeature sets or accuracy feedback information, among others.

The controller 102 or server 104 may process the captured image data bythe imaging component 190 and may maintain an inventory of image data,which may be stored in memory on the gardening system 100 or data store112. The controller 102 or server 104 may be configured to provide realtime or near real time feedback, and may perform various analyses. Thecontroller 102 or server 104 may identify patterns based on combiningimage data with other data captured by the gardening system 100, such asby sensor component 192, which may include lighting, sound, oxygenlevels, carbon dioxide levels, water levels, soil saturation, rootvibration, or pressure.

In some embodiments, the controller 102, the server 104, or acombination thereof may perform the processing of the image datacaptured by the imaging component 190. Where the server 104 processesimage data, the controller 102 may transmit the image data to the server104 over the network 106.

In some embodiments, the imaging component 190 may comprise a red greenblue (RGB) camera, a visible light camera, an infrared camera, anultraviolet camera, another camera that may detect another lightwavelength, or a combination thereof. The imaging component 190 maycomprise one or more emitters that emit a particular light have awavelength that may be detectable by the camera of the imaging component190. For example, the imaging component 190 may comprise an infraredemitter that may reflect from the plants or soil growing in thegardening system 100.

The imaging component 190 may capture aspects of the environment throughvarious images, which may include image data corresponding to photos ofthe plants, such as a normal colour photo or an infrared photo of theplant.

In some embodiments, the imaging component 190 may capture image datacorresponding to an infrared image of the plant growing in the gardeningsystem 100. The controller 102 or server 104 may process this image datato determine the activity of photosynthesis occurring in the plant.

Based on the data captured by the imaging component 190, the controller102 or server 104 may determine when to send a message to a user device114 to recommend that the plant be harvested. The recommendation may bea window of time for harvesting the plant, which may include herbs,leafy greens, roots, and microgreens, and may include flowering plants.

The gardening system 100 may comprise a sensor configured to capturedata corresponding to ambient light arriving from outside the gardeningsystem 100. The controller 102 or server 104 may determine in real timeor near real time if the light is usable sunlight by the plants forgrowing in the gardening system 100. If it is determined that thespectrum of light is usable sunlight, the controller 102 or server 104may send a control command to the light controller 204 to adjust theemissions from the light source 158 to include the external usable lightspectrum to save on costs associated with running the gardening system100, such as costs associated with generating light with the lightingsubsystem 154. This feature may be user-determined where the user mayplace the gardening system 100 in an “economy” setting.

The gardening system 100 may comprise a sound wave emitter (e.g. aspeaker) configured to emit sound waves having a frequency that maymimic the sound of nature, which may be called a “sonic bloom”. Thesound frequency, sound pressure level, exposure periods, and distancefrom the source of the sound wave emitted by the sound wave emitter maybe compared with data captured by the imaging component 190 and sensorcomponent 192, and a sound frequency that enhances the health of theplant may be determined. The sound frequency may be developed and may beenhanced as any sound that may be pleasant sounding, and may be playedand be available in the gardening system 100 to enhance the health ofthe plant.

Sound waves technology has been applied to different plants. It has beenfound that sound waves at different frequencies, sound pressure levels(SPLs), exposure periods, and distances from the source of sound mayinfluence plant growth. Experiments have been conducted in the openfield and under greenhouse growing conditions with different levels ofaudible sound frequencies and sound pressure levels. For example, soundwaves at 1 kHz and 100 dB for 1 hour within a distance of 0.20 m maypromote the division and cell wall fluidity of callus cells and mayenhance the activity of protective enzymes and endogenous hormones.Sound waves stimulation may increase the plant plasma-membrane H+-ATPaseactivity, the contents of soluble sugar, soluble protein, and amylaseactivity of callus. Moreover, sound waves may increase the content ofRNA and the level of transcription. Stress-induced genes may switch onunder sound stimulation. For example, sound waves at 0.1-1 kHz and SPLof (70±5) dB for 3 hour from plant acoustic frequency technology (PAFT)generator within a distance ranged from 30 to 60 m every other day mayincrease the yield of sweet pepper, cucumber and tomato by 30.05%, 37.1%and 13.2%, respectively. As another example, the yield of lettuce,spinach, cotton, rice, and wheat may be increased by 19.6%, 22.7%,11.4%, 5.7%, and 17.0%, respectively. Sound waves may also strengthenplant immune systems. In some embodiments, spider mite, aphids, graymold, late blight and virus disease of tomatoes in the greenhouses maybe decreased by 6.0%, 8.0%, 9.0%, 11.0%, and 8.0%, respectively, and thesheath blight of rice may be reduced by 50%. Sound waves applied toplants may have an effect on various growth parameters of plants atdifferent growth stages.

In some embodiments, the frequency of the sound may emulate that of asonic bloom or a frequency within a certain range to make plants growhealthier and grow faster.

In some embodiments, the sound may emulate the play of a violin.

Accordingly, the controller 102 or server 104 may send a control commandto a speaker to play one or more sounds that correspond to promotion ofgrowth of healthy plants.

In some embodiments, there may be a sound cancelling system forcancelling the sound played, such that the plants may receive the soundwaves, but the sound may not be heard by users of the gardening system100.

The sensor component 192 may comprise a sensor (e.g. a microphonesensor) configured to capture data corresponding to the sound of theenvironment of the gardening system 100 and the vibration of roots. Thedata may be processed and compared with data corresponding to the healthof the plants growing in the gardening system 100 to determine sounds ofthe gardening system 100 that correspond to healthy plants. Accordingly,the controller 102 or server 104 may send a control command to a speakerto play sounds that correspond to healthy plants.

The sensor component 192 may comprise a sensor (e.g. root sensor)configured to capture data corresponding to the vibration frequency ofroots of plants growing in the gardening system 100. The sensor may beinserted in the soil from which the plants are growing. The data may beprocessed and compared with data corresponding to the health of theplants growing in the gardening system 100 to determine vibrations ofroots of plants that correspond to healthy plants.

Based on the data captured by the root sensor, the controller 102 orserver 104 may send a control command to a speaker to emit a vibrationfrequency into the environment of the gardening system 100.

The sensor component 192 may comprise one or more sensors for detectingthe atmosphere of the gardening system 100, such as the atmosphere ofthe housing 136. In some embodiments, the one or more sensors may beoxygen sensors or carbon dioxide sensors configured to detect the amountof oxygen (e.g. in parts per million) and carbon dioxide (e.g. in partsper million) in the gardening system 100. In some embodiments, the oneor more sensors may be pressure sensors configured to detect thebarometric pressure of the atmosphere in the housing 136.

The data from the oxygen sensor, and carbon dioxide sensor, and pressuresensor may be processed by the controller 102 or server 104, and may becompared with ideal oxygen levels, carbon dioxide levels, or barometricpressure levels as determined by a self-learning algorithm ormachine-learning algorithm (e.g. by the server 104). Based on thiscomparison, the controller 102 or server 104 may send a control commandto an oxygen emitter, carbon dioxide emitter, or a pressurizationcomponent of the gardening system 100 to change the levels of oxygen,levels of carbon dioxide, or the barometric pressure in the gardeningsystem 100.

The composition of the atmosphere (e.g. the amount of carbon dioxide,oxygen, or other components of the atmosphere) of the environment inwhich a plant grows may affect the rate at which the plant grows, whichmay affect the amount of nutrients absorbed by the plant from soil inwhich the plant is growing. For example, with more carbon dioxide in theenvironment, the plant may grow more quickly, which may reduce theamount of time that the plant has for absorbing nutrients from the soil.For example, with carbon dioxide at 250 parts per million, the plant maygrow at a first rate. With carbon dioxide at 480 parts per million, theplants may grow at a second rate faster than the first rate.Accordingly, plants grown in relatively high carbon dioxide environmentsmay have fewer nutrients.

When the plant is grown using the gardening system 100, the sensorcomponent 192 may capture data corresponding to the composition of theatmosphere (e.g. the amount of carbon dioxide, oxygen, or othercomponents of the atmosphere) in the housing 136. Based on optimal plantgrowing thresholds corresponding to the atmosphere conditions in thehousing 136, the controller 102 or server 104 may send a control commandto, for example, a carbon dioxide emitter to emit additional carbondioxide, an oxygen emitter to emit additional oxygen, or may send acontrol command to a fan to circulate air into the housing 136, tochange the atmosphere composition in the housing 136.

In some embodiments, the optimal plant growing thresholds correspondingto the atmosphere conditions in the housing 136 may be based on theaverage atmospheric conditions that has been historically present, orwhat the atmospheric composition may be on average on a given day.

The gardening system 100, by controlling the atmospheric conditions,such as the amount of carbon dioxide or oxygen, may control the rate ofgrowth of the plants and the amount of nutrients of the plants.

The sensor component 192 may comprise a temperature sensor and ahumidity sensor configured to capture data corresponding to thetemperature and humidity of the environment of the gardening system 100.The data may be processed and compared with data corresponding to thehealth of the plants growing in the gardening system 100 to determinethe temperature and humidity of the gardening system 100 that correspondto healthy plants.

The controller 102 or server 104 may send a control command to atemperature or humidity controller (e.g. a fan, a heater) to change thetemperature and humidity of the gardening system 100 to reflect thetemperature and humidity of the gardening system 100 that correspond tohealthy plants.

The sensor component 192 may comprise a salinity sensor configured tocapture data corresponding to the pH of the soil in the gardening system100. The data may be processed and compared with data corresponding tothe health of the plants growing in the gardening system 100 todetermine the salinity of soil in the gardening system 100 thatcorrespond to healthy plants.

The controller 102 or server 104 may send a control command to asalinity system to change the salinity of the soil in the gardeningsystem 100 to reflect the salinity of soil of the gardening system 100that correspond to healthy plants.

The sensor component 192 may comprise a biophoton sensor configured tocapture data corresponding to the biophotons emitted by plants growingin the gardening system 100. The data may be processed to determine thebiophoton emission of plants in the gardening system 100 that correspondto healthy plants.

In some embodiments, varying levels of biphotonic activity may determinethe health of the plant.

The controller 102 or server 104 may comprise a wireless transceiverthat may communicate with a user device 114 (e.g. smartphone orcomputer), for example, using standard Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, as depictedin FIG. 28 , or another protocol, based on the wireless communicationcapabilities of the user device 114. A user may be able to view theconditions of the gardening system 100 or monitor the growth of theplants growing in the gardening system 100. The data captured by thegardening system 100 or data processed by the gardening system 100 maybe displayed on the user device 114. The user device 114 may receive acontrol command from the controller 102 or server 104, such that thedisplay of the user device 114 may be updated in real time or near realtime to provide a graphical effect displayed on the user device 114representative of the conditions of the gardening system 100 or thegrowth of the plants growing in the gardening system 100.

In some embodiments, the user device 114 in communication with thecontroller 102 or server 104 may be configured to be a device thatcompliments the controller 102 or server 104. For example, based on theplants being grown in the gardening system 100, the user device 114 maybe configured to display graphic effects corresponding to the conditionsof the gardening system 100, the progress of the growth of the plants,and a date or time that would prompt an action by the user (e.g. torefill the water reservoirs 212).

A user may download an application for displaying data captured by thegardening system 100 or data processed by the controller 102 or server104 on a user device 114, such as a smartphone or computer. FIG. 28 is aschematic of an example graphical rendering of a user device interface2800 rendered on the user device 114. In FIG. 28 , the user deviceinterface 2800 is rendered on the display of a smartphone. In someembodiments, the user device interface 2800 may be rendered on thedisplay of another user device 114. The user device interface 2800 maybe provided by the front end interface 110 residing on different typesof devices. For example, the front end interface 110 may reside in asmartphone of a user. The front end interface 110 may generate, assembleand transmit interface screens for an application for a phone, such asuser device interface 2800. In some embodiments, a user may download anapplication on their user device 114, and input log-in information, suchas a user identification number and password. In some embodiments, theuser may input information relating to the gardening system 100, such asa serial number or another identification number of the gardening system100, for logging into the application. The controller 102 or server 104may determine that the log-in information is correct, and the front endinterface 110 may provide the user device interface 2800 on the userdevice 114. As depicted in FIG. 28 , the front end interface 110 mayprovide the interface 2800 comprising one or more interface buttons. Theuser may press the interface buttons for the front end interface 110 torender data processed by the controller 102 or server 104 on the userdevice 114. For example, the user may press an interface button toreview alerts sent by the controller 102 or server 104 related togrowing or monitoring the plants, the conditions of the gardening system100 (e.g. the humidity and temperature of the housing 136, the salinityof the soil, or lighting conditions), the instructions for growingplants, data corresponding to monitoring the growth of the plants, thenutrients contained in the plants, and the savings for using thegardening system 100 compared to buying the same plants at a localgrocery store.

In some embodiments, after the user has logged in with their log-ininformation to the application, as the user uses the gardening system100, the controller 102 or server 104 may tag the captured data toassociate the captured data with the user.

In some embodiments, the downloaded application may have availablevarious timer intervals. The various timer intervals may be used forreceiving alerts from the controller 102 or server 104.

In some embodiments, there may be two ways to determine the type ofplants being grown in the gardening system 100. First, at the time ofseeding, the types of plants being grown may be manually input into thecontroller 102, the server 104, or the user device 114. For example, theuser device 114 may display a graphical effect corresponding to one ormore types of plants that may be grown using the gardening system 100,and the user may scroll through the graphical effects and select theplant or plants being grown using the gardening system 100. Second, atthe time of seeding, the imaging component 190 may capture datacorresponding to an image of the plant as it starts to grow (e.g. thecolour, the size and shape of leaves, etc.), and the controller 102 orserver 104 may process that data to determine the plant being grown. Thecontroller 102 or server 104 may determine the optimal growthenvironment variables based on the type of plant that the controller 102or server 104 has determined to be growing in the gardening system 100.

The system 10 may continually monitor the environment, such as that ofthe housing 136 of the gardening system 100, and may analyze thecaptured data to determine the optimal plant growing thresholds. Thesystem 10 may continually capture data to build intelligence. The system10 may determine that a plant is growing suboptimally, for example, bycomparing the optimal plant growing thresholds (e.g. amount of light,amount of oxygen or carbon dioxide in the environment, soil saturation,colour of plants, amount of photosynthesis activity, size of plant,mineralization of plant, etc.) with newly captured data, which may becaptured in real time or near real time data, or may be captured andstored for processing at a later time. In the event that a plant isgrowing suboptimally, such as low mineralization, suboptimalphotosynthesis, etc. the system 10 may send an alert to a user device114 with optimization recommendations. In some embodiments, the system10 may automatically change the environment based

In some embodiments, the server 104 may process the data captured at thegardening system 100 and may build intelligence on optimal plant growingthresholds. The server 104 may use one machine learning module or maycombine multiple learning modules to automate and enable self-learningcapabilities to improve the determination of optimal plant growingthresholds using historical captured data and real time or near realtime data. The optimal plant growing thresholds may be long termthresholds or short term thresholds.

When the captured data is received by the server 104, the server 104 mayprioritize the captured data for determining the optimal plant growingthresholds, which may be used to increase the efficiency and accuracy ofthe machine learning by the server 104.

Example machine learning techniques and systems that may be used by theserver 104 for determining the optimal plant growing thresholds mayinclude optimization techniques, logic techniques for learning andplanning, probabilistic methods, classifiers and statistical learningmethods, neural networks, regression analysis, support vector machines,and the like.

In some embodiments, the server 104 may apply machine learningtechniques to raw captured data, data already processed with machinelearning techniques, or subsets or these data sets. The server 104 maycompute one or more variables of the optimal plant growing thresholdswithout the need for a baseline average across conditions. The server104 may detect variables that affect all variables of the optimal plantgrowing thresholds. The server 104 may compare captured data of acertain type to historical reference data of a similar type, which mayenable the server 104 to make different predictions for the same type ofdata. The server 104 may determine a different between a predictedoptimal plant growing threshold, reference data, or captured data, whichmay be used to rank a known or unknown variable. The server 104 maycompute a difference between variables, which may allow the server 104to classify variables based on how similar they are to know variables.The server 104 may determine one or more changes to the environment ofthe gardening system 100 by comparing one or more reference optimalplant growing thresholds with captured data.

In some embodiments, the server 104 may be a cloud computing system, andthe data captured at the gardening system 100 may be transmitted to thecloud computing system for the server 104 to determine the optimal plantgrowing thresholds.

The gardening system 100 may be modular, such that it may be placed,positioned, or configured in several ways. A gardening system 100 of afirst size may be stacked on top of a gardening system 100 of a secondsize, where the first size and the second size may be the same ordifferent. The gardening system 100 may be modified by a user by placingthe gardening system 100 into a frame by a user to stack more gardeningsystems 100 on top of another.

In some embodiments, a first gardening system 100 may be stacked on topof a second gardening system 100, such that the footprint of thegardening system 100 may be efficiently used. This may allow a user toincrease the number of plants that may be grown.

In some embodiments, one or more of the components of the gardeningsystem 100 (e.g. the frame 120, vertical element 122, horizontal element124, corner element 126, corner cap 128, side panel 130, top panel 132,lighting panel 134, lighting subsystem 154, water subsystem 210, etc.)may be in segments, such that one or more segments of the gardeningsystem 100 may be removed (this may be called an “extension system”),and the extension system may be stacked on top of another gardeningsystem 100. This may allow taller plants to be grown using the gardeningsystem 100.

Multiple gardening systems 100 may be placed in the same space (e.g.same residence) or different spaces (e.g. different residence, differentcity, different country, etc.), and each of the gardening systems 100may be in communication with the user device 114 (e.g. through adownloaded application) for user management.

The modularity of the gardening system 100 may allow for plants ofvarious heights to be grown. The modularity of the gardening system 100may allow for the addition of other components, such as panels or doors,to change the configuration of the gardening system 100.

FIG. 29 depicts three options for stacking gardening systems 100.

The gardening systems 100 may be stacked on top of each other using oneor more small rubber feet 242. Each gardening system 100 may have rubberfeet 242. The rubber feet 242 may be coloured, such as black or white.The small rubber feet 242 of a first gardening system 100 may rest onthe top of a gardening system 100 placed below the first gardeningsystem 100.

The gardening system 100 may be stacked on top of another using ahorizontal tray stacking frame 244. As depicted in FIG. 29 , the frame244 may be interposed between gardening systems 100. In someembodiments, the frame 244 may be separate from the gardening system 100or may be integrally formed with the gardening system 100.

The gardening system 100 may be stacked on top of another using a wallmount stacking frame 246. The wall mount stacking frame 246 may bemounted to a wall, and then the gardening systems 100 may be mounted tothe wall mount stacking frame 246.

FIG. 30 is a schematic of stacked gardening systems 100 with separatelyformed feet 248. The gardening system 100 may comprise feet 248. Asdepicted in Figure the feet 248 may be parts that may be separate fromthe gardening system 100. This may allow for more configurations of theshape of the feet 248 and material used for making the feet 248. Thefeet 248 may be manufactured using moulding, such as blow moulding orinjection moulding. The feet 248 may be moulded in different colours. Byhaving the feet 248 separate from the gardening system 100, the cornersof the gardening system 100 may have a relatively clean appearance.

FIG. 31 is a schematic of stacked gardening systems 100 with integrallyformed feet 248. In some embodiments, the feet 248 may be integrallyformed on a corner element of the frame 120 of the gardening system 100.As depicted in FIG. 31 , the bottom feet 248 of a top gardening system100 rests on the top feet 248 of a bottom gardening system 100. Thedetails of the foot 248 may be repeated on each gardening system 100.The details of the foot 248 may come for free. The feet 248 may beintegrally formed on the top and bottom sides of the gardening system248, so feet 248 may be seen on the top surface of the top gardeningsystem 100. With the feet 248 integrally formed with the gardeningsystem 100, the feet may be installed correctly on the gardening system100.

FIG. 32 is a schematic of stacked gardening systems 100 with variationsof integrally formed feet 248. The feet 248 a may have a round shape,such as a circular shape or an oval shape. The feet 248 b may have arectangular shape or a square shape. The feet 248 c may have a shapethat extends along a width of the gardening system 100.

FIG. 33 is a schematic of stacked gardening systems 100 with variationsof separately formed feet 248. The feet 248 d may have flat faces thatoppose each other when a top gardening system 100 is stacked on top of abottom gardening system. The feet 248 e may be made in a particularcolour, such as green. The feet 248 f may be made in a particularcolour, such as grey.

FIG. 34 is a schematic of stacked gardening systems 100 with rubber feet248. The gardening system 100 may have rubber feet 248 extending fromthe bottom surface of the gardening system 100. The gardening system 100may have recesses 250 for receiving corresponding rubber feet 248 of agardening system 100 stacked above it.

The gardening system 100 may be modular, such that components orsegments of components of the gardening system 100 may be added,removed, or changed, such that the configuration of the gardening system100 may be changed. FIG. 35 is a schematic of stacked gardening systems100 with portions of the gardening systems 100 removed to accommodatehigh-growing plants. As depicted in FIG. 35 , on the left side, twotrays of plants are grown, one at a lower level and one at a higherlevel, and on the right side, one plant is grown, extending from thelower level to the higher level. One or more components on the rightside of the gardening systems 100 may be removed. As depicted in FIG. 35, a right side portion of the top panel 132 and the lighting panel 134of the bottom gardening system 100 may be removed for the plant to growthrough the bottom gardening system 100 up into the top gardening system100. Similarly, a right side portion of the water distribution tray 224,the rails 214 on the right side, and the water reservoir 212 on theright side of the top gardening system 100 have been removed. The topgardening system 100 may not support a tray on the right side. Thecomponents on the left side may be fixed due to mounting of theelectronics, sensor, and fan. In some embodiments, one or morecomponents of the left side of the gardening system 100 may be removed.In some embodiments, the plant growing on the right side may grow aroundthe lighting system 154 and lighting housing 156 of the bottom gardeningsystem 100.

In some embodiments, the water distribution tray 224 of a top gardeningsystem 100, and the top panel 132 and lighting panel 134 of a bottomgardening system 100 may be removed, such that tall plants may grow onboth the left and right sides of the gardening systems 100, extendingfrom the bottom gardening system 100 to the top gardening system 100.

FIG. 36 is a schematic of stacked gardening systems 100 of differentsizes. As depicted in FIG. 36 , there may be 1×1 units, 1×2 units, 2×1units, and 2×2 units of gardening systems 100. Gardening systems 100 mayhave other sizes. 1×1 units and 1×2 units may be sized for growingsmaller plants, such as microgreens, herbs, and short leafy greens,while 2×1 units and 2×2 units may be sized for growing larger plants,such as tall leafy greens. Each gardening system 100 may have dedicatedlighting, sensor control, and a water containment and distributionsystem. Each gardening system 100 may be separately powered. In someembodiments, two or more gardening system 100 may be in electricalcommunication together, such that the two or more gardening system 100may be able to share electrical power.

As depicted in FIG. 36 , the gardening system 100 may have a variety ofshapes. The gardening system 100 may have a generally rectangular shapeor a generally square shape. In some embodiments, the length of thegardening system 100 may be greater than its height. In someembodiments, the length of the gardening system 100 may be less than itsheight. In some embodiments, the length of the gardening system 100 maybe similar to its height.

FIG. 37 is a schematic of a soil unit 260. The soil unit 260 maycomprise soil 262 that may be compressed, shaped, and may be somewhatdehydrated. The soil 262 may be shaped as a rectangular block. The soilunit 260 may comprise a cover 264 that the soil is placed in.

The soil 262 may be a microbial-rich soil blend for growing living,nutritious food using the system 10. The soil 262 may be a custommixture of components. The soil may comprise components that may beoptimized for bioavailability with a mixture or recipe that may bedesigned and tested for effective uptake of nutrients (e.g. vitamins,minerals, protein, carbohydrate, etc.) from the soil by the plant. Thismay continue to be enhanced as the system 10 learns and more data leadsto such optimization.

The soil unit 262 may come in various sizes in order to grow shortplants, medium sized leafy green plants, and deeper root vegetables. Forexample, short or small blocks may be 4.5″ wide×7″ long×3.5″ high, whilelarge blocks may be 9″ wide×14″ long×8″ high.

The soil unit covering 264 may be a pseudo-fabric container that may bemade of breathable material for root and soil aeration. For example, thesoil unit covering 264 may be 4.375″ wide×7″ long×3″ height. The sidesof the soil unit covering 264 may be made with PET perforated fabric,and the base of the soil unit covering 264 may be made with PE non-wovenwicking material, felt, or another material that may promote fluid flowusing capillary action. The material used for the base of the soil unitcover 264 may be the same as the material used for the wicking coil 238.

The somewhat dehydrated soil 262 may not be fully dehydrated so that itmay keep its full microbial rich living activity. The soil 262 may beplaced in the soil unit covering 264 and compressed (about ⅓compression) for ease of shipping and reduced cost of shipping (lighterweight and smaller size). The soil 262 and the soil unit covering 264may be placed into a waterproof bag and placed into a carton forshipping.

A filler piece may be placed in the top ⅓ area of the soil unit 260 tomaintain the sides of the soil unit 260.

The soil unit 260 may be placed in an e-flute cardboard box 266 fortransport. As depicted in FIG. 37 , one cardboard box 266 may be fortransporting one soil unit 260. There may be custom printed graphics onthe cardboard box 266. The cardboard box 266 may be wax-coated. In someembodiments, the soil unit 260 may be poly-bagged prior to placement inthe cardboard box 266.

By using soil when growing the plants in the gardening system 100, theplants may be more nutritious, and the bioavailability of the nutrientsof the plant may be increased. That is, the ability of the nutrients tobe absorbed by the human body may be increased.

When the soil 262 is placed in the housing 136 of the gardening system100, the water subsystem 210 may provide moisture to the soil 262,using, for example, the wicking coil 238 that may fluidly communicatethe channel 228 of the water distribution tray 224 and the soil 262.

The soil 262 may comprise one or more components and ingredients. Thesoil 262 may be a mixture of components and ingredients. In someembodiments, the soil 262 may comprise microbes. The microbes may benaturally occurring microbes in the soil 262. The microbes may interactwith roots of the plants growing in the soil that is in the housing 136of the gardening system 100. This interaction between the microbes inthe soil 262 and the roots of the plants may create by-product minerals.An example of the by-product minerals created by this interaction may behumates, which may be made of fulvic acid and humic acid, among othercomponents.

The humates may promote intake of nutrients (e.g. vitamins, minerals,carbohydrates, proteins, etc.) by the plant from the soil. The plantgrowing in the gardening system 100 may also intake the humates.

When the plant has sufficiently grown in the gardening system 100, theplant may be harvested. The plant comprises nutrients taken in from thesoil, and the humates. When the plant is consumed by a user, such as ahuman, the humates present in the plants may improve, increase, orpromote absorption of nutrients of the plants into the human cell, orotherwise increase the bioavailability of the nutrients for absorptioninto the human cell.

In some embodiments, the depth of the soil unit 260 may be based on thetypes of plants grown using the soil unit 260. For example, for plantswith shorter roots, the depth of the soil unit 260 may be 10 cm deep. Asanother example, the depth of the soil unit 260 may be 20 cm deep forgrowing carrots.

FIG. 38 is a schematic of seed sheets 270. FIG. 39 is another schematicof seed sheets 270. Seed sheets 270 may be a flat mat with embedded,depressed seed pods that may be intentionally spaced to promote growth.These seed sheets 270 with pods may be fabricated according to the typeof seeds in the seed sheets 270 and the growing requirements of theplant being frown. The seed sheets 270 may be overlaid on top of thesoil 262, and may be contained in the soil unit covering 264.

For example, seed sheets 270 for microgreens may have up to 45 seedpods, and may be placed closer together for denser growth. As anotherexample, seed sheets 270 for herbs may have 24 seed pods. As yet anotherexample, seed sheets 270 for leafy greens may have 12 seed pods, placedin a low density.

As depicted in FIG. 38 , seed sheet 270 a may be for microgreens, andthe seed sheet 270 may have a covered surface of seeds. Seed sheet 270 bmay be for leafy greens, and the seeds may be separated into eightpositions. Seed sheet 270 c may be for herbs, and the seeds may beseparated into six positions.

As depicted in FIG. 39 , seed sheet 270 b may be for leafy greens, andthe seeds may be separated into eight positions. Seed sheet 270 a may befor microgreens, and the seeds may be separated into 12 positions andmay be in relatively close proximity.

The seed sheet 270 may comprise two polylactic acid (PLA) sheets thatmay be heat sealed together and may define the number of positions forthe seeds. PLA may be a biodegradable and bioactive thermoplasticaliphatic polyester derived from renewable resources, such as cornstarch cassava roots, chips or starch, or sugarcane. For example, thePLA may be manufactured by BIAX Int. in Wingham, Ontario.

FIG. 40 is a schematic 272 of spatial distributions of seeds in a seedsheet 270 for growing various plants. As depicted in FIG. 40 , dependingon the type of plant being grown, the seed sheet 270 may have aparticular seed distribution and the number of seeds used may bedifferent.

In some embodiments, the system 10 may be in communication with otherdevices or computer systems in the network 106. These devices orcomputer systems may provide price information relating to the cost ofplants sold at a grocery store, and the system may calculate the savingsassociated with using the system 10 grow plants compared to the buyingthe same plants at the grocery store.

In some embodiments, based on the plants grown in the gardening system100, the system 10 may send a control command corresponding to agraphical effect for displaying and suggesting a recipe on a user device114 that may use the plants grown in the gardening system 100.

In some embodiments, the system 10 may notify a user when another useris using another system 10 or when another gardening system 100 isproximate. The system may inform users if a number of gardening systems100 may be proximate in a certain geographical area (e.g. within ablock, within the same residential building, etc.), which may present anopportunity to trade plants grown at those gardening systems 100. Thenotification may be a suggestion of an trade opportunity, such that theusers of the system may trade plants that they are growing (e.g. a usergrowing kale may trade with another user growing mint).

In some embodiments, a first user may send a control commandcorresponding to a trade offer (e.g. an offer to trade an excess amountof plants grown on their gardening system 100, seeking certain plantsgrown nearby but not grown by the user, etc.) to the server 104. Theserver 104 may send a control command to the user devices 114 of theusers of nearby gardening systems 100 to notify the users of nearbygardening systems 100 of the trade offer of the first user, and theusers of nearby gardening systems 100 may respond to the trade offer ofthe first user. The system 10 may provide a platform for one or more ofthe users of the nearby gardening systems 100 to communicate with thefirst user using the user devices 114, such as a messaging platform,video platform, voice platform, or a combination thereof.

In some embodiments, the system 10 or components of the system 10 may beverified to be the system 10 or components of the system 10. Forexample, a QR code may be printed on the system 10 or components of thesystem 10 and may be matched with information in a database to confirmthat the system 10 or components of the system 10 are real ormanufactured by the correct manufacturers. There may be a secureUniversal Product Code handshake to ensure that soil units 260 aremanufactured by the correct manufacturers.

In some embodiments, the system 10 may track the amount of plants thathave been harvested and consumed by the user (e.g. a certain unit ofplants, a certain unit of microgreens, a certain unit of leafy greens,etc.) and may calculate the amount of essentials (e.g. minerals,vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates) that were consumed by the user. Basedon the amount of nutrients consumed by the user, the system 10 maydetermine the percentage of daily intake of those nutrients consumed bythe consumer, and may recommend an amount of plants to meet the totalrecommended daily intake of those nutrients. The system 10 may recommendgrowing certain types of plants in the gardening system 100, eatingcertain types of foods, or consuming certain types of supplements. Thesystem 10 may be used by the user to buy these products. The system 10may provide a link to each item, with prices and a purchase function.

In some embodiments, the system 10 may be in data communication with asupplier of materials of the system 10, such as a supplier of the soilunit 260 or seed sheets 270. The system 10 may send a control command tothe supplier to order more soil units or seed sheets 270.

In some embodiments, the system 10 may be a commercial unit, like avending machine. The system 10 (e.g. the gardening system 100) may beplaced in a store, and plants may be grown using the system 10. Acustomer of the store may harvest the plants growing in the system 10.The harvested plants may be weighed to calculate the cost of theharvested plants. In such embodiments, the system 10 may be a vendingmachine of plants for customers.

The system 10 described herein may be used to grow plants. In someembodiments, the system 10 described herein may be used to grow otherfood, such as fruits.

The system 10 described herein may be used to optimize soil compositionbased on the data captured at the gardening system 100.

When the user installs the system 10 (e.g. purchasing the system 10, orplacing the gardening system 100 at home), the system 10 may be set upand turned on. The system 10 may monitor the conditions of theenvironment before making a personalized region-specific recommendationof what plants to grow using the gardening system 100. Thisrecommendation may be based on data that may be captured at thegardening system 100, such as barometric pressure, air quality,elevation, temperature, humidity, and the like.

In operation of the system 10 as depicted in FIG. 1 , the gardeningsystem 100 may be connected to a power source, such as to an electricaloutlet. The user may remove the one or more trays 142 from the gardeningsystem 100 to fill them with soil and seeds. The soil may be placed inthe tray 142 first, and then the seeds may be placed on the soil. Thesoil may be placed in the tray 142 until the tray 142 is filled withsoil. In some embodiments, the user may place the soil unit 260 in thetray 142, being guided by the rails 150 of the tray 142. Then, one ormore seed sheets 270 may be placed on the soil unit 260. As depicted inFIG. 3 , two trays 142, each configured to receive four soil units 260,may be used with the gardening system 100. The user may insert the tray142, now having soil and seeds, into the gardening system 100. In someembodiments, the tray 142 may be slidably inserted into the gardeningsystem 100. When the tray 142 is properly positioned in the gardeningsystem 100, the lighting subsystem 154 and water subsystem 210 may beable to access the soil and seeds in the tray 142. The tray 142 may makea “click” sound when it is properly positioned in the gardening system100.

The user may remove the water reservoirs 212 from the gardening system100 and fill them with water, and then insert the water reservoirs 212into the gardening system 100. The water reservoirs 212 may be slidablyinserted into the gardening system 100 using the rails 214 of thegardening system. The spring valve 216 of the water reservoirs 212 mayengage with the nozzles 218 of the rail 214 to fluidly communicate thewater reservoirs 212 with the water distribution tray 224 of the watersubsystem 210. When the spring valve 216 and nozzle 218 are engaged, a“click” sound may be made, and the water subsystem 210 may be activated.The water may flow from the water reservoir 212 to the channels 228 ofthe water distribution tray 224. The water in the channels may flow tothe soil in the tray 142 using one or more wicking coils 238 positionedin the channels 228. Using capillary action, the wicking coil 238 maydraw the water from the channel 228 towards the tray. The wicking coil238 may be in contact with the soil in the tray. In some embodiments,the wicking coil 238 may be in contact with the base of the soil unitcover 264, which may be made using the same material as the wicking coil238. The water in the channels 228 may flow to the soil through thewicking coil 238, or through the wicking coil 238 and the soil unitcover 264, and may begin to saturate the soil in the tray 142.

The user may then turn on the gardening system 100 using the controlpanel 140. For example, the user may turn on the lighting subsystem 154of the gardening system 100 using the control panel 140. The gardeningsystem 100 may also be turned on remotely using the user device 114. Atthis point, the controller 102 may take over the growth of the plant andmonitoring the growth of the plant. The sensor component 192 and imagingcomponent 190 of the gardening system 100 may capture data correspondingto the conditions of the gardening system 100, growth of the plant, andhealth of the plant. The controller 102 of the gardening system 100 mayprocess the data captured by the sensor component 192 and imagingcomponent 190 to determine the growth of the plant. Based on the datacaptured by the sensor component 192 and imaging component 190, thecontroller 102 may send a control command to a subsystem of thegardening system (e.g. lighting subsystem 154, atmosphere control, etc.)to change the conditions of the gardening system 100. The controller 102may send a control command to a user device 114, such as over a network106, wirelessly (e.g. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) to send a message to the userdevice 114. The user may view the message on an application downloadedon the user device 114. Based on the message sent by the controller 102to the user device 114, the user may tend to the plant, harvest theplant, add water to the water tanks, or otherwise manage the gardeningsystem 100. The system 10 has now entered into user passivity, where theuser waits while the controller 102 and user device 114 continue tocommunicate with one another to enable plant growth. The user may benotified using the user device 114 to act on the plants or the gardeningsystem 100.

The controller 102 may send data captured by the sensor component 192and imaging component 190 to the server 104 via the network 106. Theserver 106 may process the data provided by the controller 102, andbased on that data, determine the optimal plant growing thresholds tobuild intelligence using machine learning or artificial intelligence,and may compare captured data, such as real time or near real time data,with the optimal plant growing thresholds. Based on this comparison, theserver 104 may determine if a plant is growing sub-optimally, and maysend a control command to the user device 114 to display a message onthe user device 114, such as recommendations for optimization, or theserver 104 may send a control command to the controller 102 todynamically or automatically change the condition of the gardeningsystem 100.

FIG. 41 depicts a method S300 of using the system 10.

At block S302, the soil and seeds, such as the soil unit 260 and seedsheet 270 may be introduced to the gardening system 100. The soil andseeds may be introduced to the gardening system 100 using one or moretrays 142. The water reservoirs 212 may be filled with water andinserted into the gardening system 100, and water may begin to flow intothe water distribution channel 228 and begin to saturate the soil. Thelighting subsystem 154 may be turned on. At this point, the seeds maybegin to grow.

At block S304, the sensor component 192 and imaging component 190 maycapture data of the conditions of the gardening system 100 and thegrowth of the plant in the gardening system 100. The captured data maybe processed by the controller 102, the server 104, or a combinationthereof.

At block S306, based on the captured data from the gardening system 100,optimal plant growing thresholds may be determined. The optimal plantgrowing thresholds may be determined, for example, by the server 104,using machine learning and artificial intelligence.

At block S308, additional data may be captured by the sensor component192 and imaging component 190 corresponding to the conditions of thegardening system 100 and the growth of the plant in the gardening system100.

At block S310, the optimal plant growing thresholds determined at S306may be compared with the additional captured data at S308.

At block S312, based on the comparison, a control command may begenerated. The control command may correspond to a change to thecondition of the gardening system 100 (e.g. change in lighting, changein atmospheric composition, change in sound, etc.) to optimize theconditions of the gardening system 100 to improve the health of theplant and bioavailability of the nutrients of the plant.

At block S314, the control command generated at S312 may be transmitted.In some embodiments, the control command may be transmitted to thecontroller 102 of the gardening system 100 to automatically ordynamically change the condition of the gardening system 100. In someembodiments, the control command may be transmitted to a user device torecommend that a user manually change the condition of the gardeningsystem.

In use, different plants grown by system 10 may require varyingenvironmental variables or controls (such as temperatures) for optimizedgrowth to achieve, for example, a desired balance of mineralization,enzymes, and chlorophyll development in the plant. System 10 may beconfigured to customize settings based on a plant type, number ofplants, and condition of the plants.

One such environmental variable includes temperature. In someembodiments, temperature in gardening system 100 may be sensed bytemperature sensors such as sensor components 192 and temperature ingardening system 100 may be modified to be cooler or warmer than theoverall ambient temperature, for example, by way of a temperaturecontroller (e.g. a fan, a heater, in an example, based on electricalresistance) as described herein. In some embodiments, temperature may besensed and/or modulated on the scale of the overall environment ofsystem 10, an individual gardening system 100, an individual tray 142within gardening system 100, or an individual soil unit 260. In thisway, custom control of system 10 may be achieved and generation ofoptimization of a plant and plant growth through calibration oftemperature, as one variable in an example.

A centralized controller, in an example, controller 102, may capturedata on the plants growing in each gardening system 100. Plant data maybe communicated back to the cloud and the data stored over time, asdescribed herein. Data such as a plant type may be input in an automatedmanner or manually entered or captured.

In some embodiments, a plant type and number of plants present may beautomatically captured by way of image recognition software, forexample, by way of imaging component 190, and an algorithm (for example,as part of controller 102 or server 104) may recognize the plant type.Images may be gathered through imaging component 190, for example, alens mounted in gardening system 100.

In some embodiments, a plant type may be manually captured through auser action or interaction with, for example, controller 102 or server104. In an example, a user may select the plant types and number ofplants growing in each soil unit 260, tray 142, gardening system 100 orsystem 10.

Once plant types are captured and determined, an algorithm may match theplant to its optimal settings for growth and/or bioavailability, and mayset gardening system 100 environment to optimum growing variables, suchas temperature settings, and may make adjustments throughout the plant'slife.

In some embodiments, system 10 may be configured to mimic a geographicalgrowing region, for example, that is well-suited for a plant type. Inone example, for a plant type identified as lettuce system 10 may beconfigured to mimic a region of California, on the basis of certaingrowing variables, including temperature, humidity, water level, lightcolour and level, and soil characteristics.

In some embodiments, system 10 may be configured to mimic certaingrowing seasons, varying over time.

The system 10 may grow plants that are nutritious to the human body asit relates to the human bioavailability of plant minerals to enableoptimum human cellular health (i.e. high nourishment for the body). Thesystem 10 may allow a user to conveniently grow vegetables at the touchof a button.

The system 10 may be driven by bio inputs, such as microbial-rich soil,sun mimicking LED lights, Infrared camera that captures photosynthesisto offer feedback to customers, sound waves that enhance plant growth,and bio geometric design. By controlling these inputs, the system 10 mayimprove the health of the plants grown using the system 10, theessentials or nutrients provided by the plants, and the bioavailabilityof these essentials or nutrients for the human body.

The system 10 may allow food to be grown 24 hours a day, 365 days a yearwhile protecting crops from harsh weather and accidental pollution. Thesystem 10 may allow plants to be grown in the manner that they havetraditionally been grown, namely, in a complex environment, with a focuson growing nourishing plants by enhancing bio-inputs. Bio-inputs may beenhanced using: the soil, which may be a complex combination or web ofmicrobes, enzymes, minerals, etc.; the lighting subsystem, which maymimic the sun using LED lights; sound subsystem; and enhancement ofbiophotons, and the like.

The system 10 may also allow food to be grown cheaply. The price ofgrowing the food may be similar to prices of food sold by farms. Thecost of the food grown by the system may be reduced, as the cost may notinclude the costs related to transporting the food or distributing thefood.

The system 10 may allow the user to oversee or supervise food productionfrom planting the seed to harvesting the crop, which may give insightinto the growth process. The system 10 may allow the user to trace thematerials used to grow the plants from seed to fork.

The system 10 may allow the user to grow food in a small space, such asin their home. Accordingly, the system 10 may grow food “hyper-locally”.

Other configurations of the gardening system 100 may be possible.

FIG. 42 is a schematic of another gardening system 400. The gardeningsystem 400 may be generally similar to the gardening system 100, havinga frame 120, a lighting subsystem 154, and a water distributionsubsystem 210. However, the gardening system 400 may comprise cornerelements 126 that may be cast in metal or made using metal. The othercomponents of the frame 120 may be extruded, such as extruded members.The water distribution tray 224, tray 142, and water reservoirs 212 maybe injection moulded. The side panels 130 and top panel 132 may be cutand fit to the frame 120.

As depicted in FIG. 42 , the top panel 132 may be made of a materialthat may allow additional external light to illuminate the housing 136of the gardening system 400, such as glass.

FIG. 43 is a schematic of another gardening system 500. The gardeningsystem 500 may be generally similar to the gardening system 100, havinga frame 120, a lighting subsystem 154, and a water distributionsubsystem 210. However, the components of the frame 120 may be extruded,such as extruded members. The water distribution tray 224, tray 142, andwater reservoirs 212 may be injection moulded.

As depicted in FIG. 43 , the channels 228 of the water distribution tray224 may be in fluid communication with each other. That is, the waterdistribution tray 224 may define one channel 228 for receiving waterfrom the water reservoir 212.

FIG. 44 is a schematic of another gardening system 600. The gardeningsystem 600 may be generally similar to the gardening system 100, havinga frame 120, a lighting subsystem 154, and a water distributionsubsystem 210. However, the water distribution tray 224, tray 142, andwater reservoirs 212 may be injection moulded.

As depicted in FIG. 44 , the top panel 132 and the water distributiontray 224 may be defined as two segments, a left and a right segment. Oneor more segments of the top panel 132 and the water distribution tray224 may be removed for stacking a gardening system 600 on top of anothergardening system 600.

In some embodiments, with respect to gardening systems 400, 500, and600, the gardening system 400 may have the highest part cost, followedby gardening system 600, followed by gardening system 500 with thelowest part cost, and the gardening system 600 may have the highest toolcost, followed by gardening system 500, followed by gardening system 400with the lowest tool cost.

FIG. 45 is a schematic of another gardening system 700. The gardeningsystem 700 may be generally similar to the gardening system 100, exceptthe side panels 130, top panel 134, and lighting panel 134 may be madewith wood.

The appearance of the gardening system 700 may be generally similar tothe gardening system 100. The light emitted by the lighting subsystem154 may be shared with all plants growing in the gardening system 700.Also, the shape of the trays 142 may be generally simple. Also, thegardening system 700 may comprise a frame 120, side panels 130, and atop panel 132, which may cost less for manufacturing.

As the gardening system 700 may be modular, the components or segmentsof the components of the gardening system 700 may be assembled to formthe gardening system 700. One or more of the components, or one or moreof the segments of the components, may comprise electrical components(e.g. electrical couplings, electrical connectors, wires, etc.) forassembling the gardening system 700. The gardening system 700 maycomprise one or more corner elements 126, one or more corner caps 128,or one or more rails 214 for providing a rectangular shape of thegardening system 700 with rounded corners.

FIG. 46 is a schematic of another gardening system 800. The gardeningsystem 800 may be generally similar to the gardening system 100, exceptthe water reservoirs 212 are mounted generally in the middle of thegardening system 800 rather on the sides of the frame 120. As depictedin FIG. 46 , when the water reservoirs 212 are mounted generally in themiddle of the gardening system, the housing 136 may be separated by thewater reservoirs 212 into a housing 136 a and a housing 136 b.

In some embodiments, as depicted in FIG. 46 , the gardening system 800may have an integrally formed frame 120. In some embodiments, asdepicted in FIG. 46 , the side panels 130 and top panel 132 may beapproximately flush with the frame 120 and may not be recessed in theframe 120. In some embodiments, portions of the frame 120, the sidepanels 130, or the top panel 132 may be curved to provide the appearanceof rounded corners.

The gardening system 800 may be assembled easily, and the electricalconnections of the gardening system 800 may be easier to configure. Thewater, electronics, fan, lighting subsystem 154, and sensor component192 may be centrally located at a central hub. As depicted in FIG. 46 ,the gardening system 800 may not comprise rails 214 at the corners ofthe gardening system 800 for guiding the water reservoirs 212 into andout of the gardening system 800, which may increase the size of thehousing 136 a and the housing 136 b for growing plants.

As depicted in FIG. 46 , as there are no rails 214 positioned at thecorners of the gardening system 800, the trays 142 may be designed ormanufactured to have a rounded corner for fitting into the housing 136 aand housing 136 b of the gardening system 800, and for providing thegardening system 800 with the appearance of rounded corners. Inaddition, with the water reservoirs 212 positioned in the housing 136 todefine the housing 136 a and the housing 136 b, the light emitted by thelighting subsystem 154 may not be shared by all plants growing in thegardening system 800. A first light source 158 of the lighting subsystem154 may emit light in the housing 136 a, and a second light source 158of the lighting subsystem 154 may emit light in the housing 136 b. Insome embodiments, portions of the frame 120, the side panels 130, or thetop panel 132 may be curved to provide the appearance of roundedcorners.

FIG. 47 is a schematic of another gardening system 900. The gardeningsystem 900 may be generally similar to the gardening system 800, exceptthe top panel 132 may be made of a material that may allow additionalexternal light to illuminate the housing 136 a and the housing 136 b ofthe gardening system 900, such as glass.

FIG. 48 is a schematic of another gardening system 1000. The gardeningsystem 1000 may be generally similar to the gardening system 800 andgardening system 900, except the frame 120 may be made of metal, and theside panels 130 and the top panel 132 may be made of wood.

FIGS. 49-62 are schematics of another gardening system 1100. As depictedin FIG. 49 and FIG. 50 , the gardening system 1100 may be generallysimilar to the gardening system 100, with a frame 120, side panels 130and top panel 132, and control panel 140, lighting subsystem 154, andwater subsystem 210. However, as depicted in FIG. 49 , while both thegardening system 1100 and gardening system 100 have a rectangular shapewith round corners, the height of the gardening system 1100 as depictedin FIG. 49 may be larger than its length, while the height of thegardening system 100 depicted in FIG. 3 may be smaller than its length.While the gardening system 100 may be an open system (i.e. the gardeningsystem 100 having an open front end and an open back end, such that thehousing 136 of the gardening system 100 may be exposed to the externalenvironment), the gardening system 1100 may be a closed system withdoors 1102 on the front end and the back end, such that the housing 136of the gardening system 1100 may not be exposed to the externalenvironment. The doors 1102 may improve the control of the conditions inthe housing 136 of the gardening system 1100. For example, with thedoors 1102 closed, the temperature and humidity of the housing 136 maybe controlled. The door 1102 may be a transparent or translucent door.In some embodiments, the door 1102 may be a glass door that comprisesglass 1104. The glass 1104 may be opaque, translucent, or transparent.The glass 1104 may be tint-able glass. The user may send a controlcommand using a user device 114 to tint the glass 1104.

In some embodiments, the lighting subsystem 154 of the gardening system1100 may be more powerful than the lighting subsystem 154 of thegardening system 100.

As depicted in FIG. 49 and FIG. 50 , the control panel 140 may compriseone or more buttons and lights as described herein. For example, theremay be a button corresponding to turning the gardening system 100 on oroff, a button corresponding to turning the lighting system 154 on oroff, or a button for turning the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth compatibility on oroff. There may be a logo or a light corresponding to whether the waterlevel in the water reservoir 212 is low. The light may be turned on bythe controller 102 when the controller 102 determines that the waterlevel in the water reservoir 212 is low. There may be a logo or a lightcorresponding to whether the gardening system 100 is connected to Wi-Fior Bluetooth.

FIG. 51 is a schematic of the gardening system 1100. In someembodiments, the control panel 140 of the gardening system 1100 maycomprise a screen as described herein. The controller 102 may send acontrol command for displaying buttons, lights, or menu options on thescreen. There may be a knob, switch, or buttons for scrolling throughthe screen. In some embodiments, the screen may be a touch screen. Theuser may use the control panel 140 to send a control command to thecontroller 102 for changing the conditions of the gardening system 100.

FIG. 52 and FIG. 53 are schematics of the gardening system 1100. Asdepicted in FIG. 52 and FIG. 53 , the glass 1104 of the door 1102 may betinted. In some embodiments, the tint of the glass 1104 may be toggledon or off, or a degree of tint may be set. In some embodiments, a userdevice 114 may set the amount of tint of the glass 1104. In someembodiments, the amount of tint of the glass may be set at the controlpanel 140.

FIG. 54 is a schematic of the gardening system 1100. As depicted in FIG.54 , the gardening system 1100 may comprise a screen 1106. Thecontroller 102 may send a control command for graphical effects to berendered on the screen 1106. The graphical effects rendered on thescreen 1106 may correspond to previously captured video data, real timevideo data, or near real time video data of the plants growing in thehousing 136, conditions of the gardening system 1100 (e.g. water levelin water reservoirs 212, temperature of the housing 136, the amount oflight detected by a light sensor 160, etc.). In some embodiments, thegraphical effects rendered on the screen 1106 may correspond to datacaptured by the sensor component 192 and imaging component 190 of thegardening system 1100, or may be data processed by the controller 102 orserver of the system 10.

In some embodiments, the screen may be a touch screen 1106. In someembodiments, the screen 1106 may function as the control panel 140. Thegraphical effects rendered on the screen 1106 may correspond to menuitems, and the user may press on the screen 1106 to control thegardening system 1100.

In some embodiments, the screen 1106 may be generally transparent ortranslucent, such that the screen 1106 may be used to look into thehousing 136 of the gardening system 1100. In some embodiments, video orimage data corresponding to the plants growing in the housing 136 may berendered on the screen 1106. The rendering of the video or image datamay be done intermittently. The controller 102 may send a controlcommand for graphical effects to be rendered on the screen 1106, whichmay correspond to, for example, conditions of the gardening system 1100(e.g. water level in water reservoirs 212, temperature of the housing136, the amount of light detected by a light sensor 160, etc.). A usermay look through the screen 1106 to view the plants growing in thegardening system 1100, and may look on the screen 1106 to view datarelated to the conditions of the gardening system 1100. Where the screen1106 functions as a control panel, the user may interact with the screen1106, such as pressing a portion of the screen on which a button orswitch has been rendered, to control the gardening system 1100.

In some embodiments, graphical renderings corresponding to conditions ofthe gardening system 1100 may be rendered on the screen 1106, andgraphical renderings corresponding to video data of the plant may berendered as a background to the graphical renderings corresponding toconditions of the gardening system 1100.

In some embodiments, as depicted in FIG. 54 , the door 1102 may be anopaque door, and the glass 1104 of the door 1102 may be opaque.

FIG. 55 is a schematic of the gardening system 1100. FIG. 56 depicts thegardening system 1100 with the door 1102 open. As depicted in FIG. 56 ,the gardening system 1100 comprises the control panel 140, the waterreservoirs 212, and the water distribution tray 224. FIG. 56 depicts twotrays 142 in the housing 136 of the gardening system 1100.

FIG. 56 is a schematic of the control panel 140 of the gardening system1100. The control panel 140 may comprise one or more buttons and lights,as described herein. For example, there may be a button corresponding toturning the gardening system 100 on or off, a button corresponding toturning the lighting system 154 on or off, or a button for turning theWi-Fi or Bluetooth compatibility on or off. There may be a logo or alight corresponding to whether the water level in the water reservoir212 is low. The light may be turned on by the controller 102 when thecontroller 102 determines that the water level in the water reservoir212 is low. There may be a logo or a light corresponding to whether thegardening system 100 is connected to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

FIG. 57 is a schematic of the control panel 140 of the gardening system1100. The control panel 140 of the gardening system 1100 may comprise ascreen, as described herein. The controller 102 may send a controlcommand for displaying buttons, lights, or menu options on the screen.There may be a knob, switch, or buttons for scrolling through thescreen. In some embodiments, the screen may be a touch screen. The usermay use the control panel 140 to send a control command to thecontroller 102 for changing the conditions of the gardening system 100.

FIG. 58 is a schematic of the screen 1106 of the gardening system 1100.

FIG. 59 is a schematic of the gardening system 1100. In someembodiments, the door 1102 may comprise a lock 1108. As depicted in FIG.59 , the lock 1108 may be locked and unlocked with a key. In someembodiments, the lock 1108 may comprise a keypad, and a user may have toinput a password to unlock the lock 1108. In some embodiments, the lock1108 may comprise a magnetic sensor, and a key card may be swipedagainst the sensor to unlock the lock 1108. In some embodiments, othervarieties of locks 1108 may be used to lock and unlock the door 1102.

FIG. 60 is a schematic of the gardening system 1100. The gardeningsystem 1100 may be connected to an external water source for filling upthe water reservoirs 212, such that the water reservoirs 212 do not haveto be removed from the gardening system 1100 each time they are to berefilled. The gardening system 1100 may comprise a water connection1110, as depicted in FIG. 60 . Using the water connection 1110, thegardening system 1100 may be connected to an external water source. Thewater subsystem 210 of the gardening system 1100 may comprise a pump forpumping the water from the external water source to the water reservoirs212. For example, the gardening system 1100 may be connected to thewater supply of a house or apartment using the water connection 1110,and the pump may be controlled by the controller 102 to pump water tothe water reservoirs 212 when the controller 102 determines that thewater level in the water reservoirs 212 may be low. As depicted in FIG.60 , the water connection 1110 may be closed or sealed using a nut 1112.

FIG. 61 is a schematic of the gardening system 1100. The gardeningsystem 1100 may comprise a ventilation system 1114 for controlling theconditions of the housing 136 of the gardening system 1100, such as thetemperature or humidity of the housing 136. The sensor component 192 ofthe gardening system 1100 may capture data corresponding to thetemperature and humidity of the housing 136. The controller 102 orserver 104 may process that data and determine the temperature andhumidity of the housing 136. Based on the optimal plant growingthresholds for the plants being grown in the gardening system 1100, thecontroller 102 or server 104 may send a control command to theventilation system 1114 to open or close, to circulate external air intothe housing 136, or to blow air out of the housing 136 to change thetemperature or humidity of the housing 136.

In some embodiments, the sensor component 192 and imaging component 190may capture data corresponding to the atmosphere conditions in thehousing 136 of the gardening system 1100. The controller 102 or server104 may process the captured data and determine that one or moreimpurities are in the atmosphere (e.g. pathogen, debris, unexpectedgases, etc.). The controller 102 or server 104 may send a controlcommand to the ventilation system 1114 to open or close, to circulateexternal air into the housing 136, or to blow air out of the housing 136to reduce the amount of pathogens in the housing 136 or remove thepathogens from the housing 136. In some embodiments, the gardeningsystem 1100 may have a hydrogen peroxide emitter, and if the controller102 or server 104 determines that there is a pathogen in the housing136, the controller 102 or server 104 may send a control command to thehydrogen peroxide emitter to emit hydrogen peroxide to remove thepathogen.

FIG. 62 is a schematic of the gardening system 1100. FIG. 62 depicts thelighting subsystem 154 as described herein. The lighting subsystem 154may comprise light sources 158, which may be LED lights. As depicted inFIG. 62 , the lighting subsystem 154 may be recessed in the gardeningsystem 100.

In some embodiments, the gardening system 1100 may be used to growmarijuana and monitor the growth of the marijuana.

The embodiments of the devices, systems and methods described herein maybe implemented in a combination of both hardware and software. Theseembodiments may be implemented on programmable computers, each computerincluding at least one processor, a data storage system (includingvolatile memory or non-volatile memory or other data storage elements ora combination thereof), and at least one communication interface.

Program code is applied to input data to perform the functions describedherein and to generate output information. The output information isapplied to one or more output devices. In some embodiments, thecommunication interface may be a network communication interface. Inembodiments in which elements may be combined, the communicationinterface may be a software communication interface, such as those forinter-process communication. In still other embodiments, there may be acombination of communication interfaces implemented as hardware,software, and combination thereof.

Throughout the foregoing discussion, numerous references will be maderegarding servers, services, interfaces, portals, platforms, or othersystems formed from computing devices. It should be appreciated that theuse of such terms is deemed to represent one or more computing deviceshaving at least one processor configured to execute softwareinstructions stored on a computer readable tangible, non-transitorymedium. For example, a server can include one or more computersoperating as a web server, database server, or other type of computerserver in a manner to fulfill described roles, responsibilities, orfunctions.

The system 10 described herein may grow plants and monitor the growth ofplants to increase the nutritional value of the plants and thebioavailability of those nutrients for absorption into the human body.Based on captured data corresponding to the conditions of the gardeningsystem 100, the system 10 may determine the optimal plant growingthresholds and may send alerts to a user device to prompt a change inthe conditions of the gardening system 100, or may automatically ordynamically change the conditions of the gardening system 100.

Various example embodiments are described herein. Although eachembodiment represents a single combination of inventive elements, allsuitable combinations of the disclosed elements include the inventivesubject matter. Thus if one embodiment comprises elements A, B, and C,and a second embodiment comprises elements B and D, then the inventivesubject matter is also considered to include other remainingcombinations of A, B, C, or D, even if not explicitly disclosed.

The term “connected” or “coupled to” may include both direct coupling(in which two elements that are coupled to each other contact eachother) and indirect coupling (in which at least one additional elementis located between the two elements).

The technical solution of embodiments may be in the form of a softwareproduct. The software product may be stored in a non-volatile ornon-transitory storage medium, which can be a compact disk read-onlymemory (CD-ROM), a USB flash disk, or a removable hard disk. Thesoftware product includes a number of instructions that enable acomputer device (personal computer, server, or network device) toexecute the methods provided by the embodiments.

The embodiments described herein are implemented by physical computerhardware, including computing devices, servers, receivers, transmitters,processors, memory, displays, and networks. The embodiments describedherein provide useful physical machines and particularly configuredcomputer hardware arrangements. The embodiments described herein aredirected to electronic machines and methods implemented by electronicmachines adapted for processing and transforming electromagnetic signalswhich represent various types of information.

The embodiments described herein pervasively and integrally relate tomachines, and their uses; and the embodiments described herein have nomeaning or practical applicability outside their use with computerhardware, machines, and various hardware components.

Substituting the physical hardware particularly configured to implementvarious acts for non-physical hardware, using mental steps for example,may substantially affect the way the embodiments work. Such computerhardware limitations are clearly essential elements of the embodimentsdescribed herein, and they cannot be omitted or substituted for mentalmeans without having a material effect on the operation and structure ofthe embodiments described herein. The computer hardware is essential toimplement the various embodiments described herein and is not merelyused to perform steps expeditiously and in an efficient manner.

Although the embodiments have been described in detail, it should beunderstood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can bemade herein without departing from the scope as defined by the appendedclaims.

Moreover, the scope of the present application is not intended to belimited to the particular embodiments of the process, machine,manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods and steps describedin the specification. As one of ordinary skill in the art will readilyappreciate from the disclosure of the present invention, processes,machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps,presently existing or later to be developed, that perform substantiallythe same function or achieve substantially the same result as thecorresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized. Accordingly,the appended claims are intended to include within their scope suchprocesses, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means,methods, or steps.

The examples described above and illustrated are intended to be examplesonly.

What is claimed is:
 1. A gardening system for growing plants andmonitoring growth of the plants, comprising: a frame defining a housingfor receiving a tray of plants; a lighting subsystem mounted to theframe for illuminating the housing; a water subsystem, comprising: awater reservoir mounted to the frame; a water distribution tray fluidlycommunicable with the water reservoir, the water distribution traydefining one or more channels for receiving water from the waterreservoir; one or more sensors for capturing data corresponding toconditions of the housing; and a controller for selectively activatingthe lighting subsystem based on lighting conditions of the housing. 2.The gardening system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configuredto, based on the sensor data, generate a control command correspondingto a message and transmitting the control command to a user device. 3.The gardening system of claim 1, wherein one or more wicking coils isreceived in the one or more channels for fluidly communicating the oneor more channels with the housing.
 4. The gardening system of claim 1,wherein the water reservoir is a first water reservoir, and thegardening system comprising a second water reservoir, wherein the firstand second water reservoirs are fluidly communicable with the waterdistribution tray.
 5. The gardening system of claim 4, wherein the firstwater reservoir and the second fluid reservoir are mounted on opposingsides of the frame.
 6. The gardening system of claim 4, wherein thefirst water reservoir and the second water reservoir are mountedcentrally on the frame and separate the housing into a first housing anda second housing.
 7. The gardening system of claim 4, wherein the waterdistribution tray defines a first channel for receiving water from thefirst water reservoir, and the water distribution tray defines a secondchannel for receiving water from the second water reservoir.
 8. Thegardening system of claim 1, wherein the lighting subsystem isconfigured to emit light ranging from ultraviolet light to infraredlight.
 9. The gardening system of claim 1, wherein the controller isconfigured to, based on the sensor data, generate a control commandcorresponding to a spectrum of light and transmitting the controlcommand to the lighting subsystem to change the light emitted by thelighting subsystem.
 10. The gardening system of claim 1, wherein theframe is modular.
 11. The gardening system of claim 1, wherein the oneor more sensors comprise oxygen sensors and carbon dioxide sensors, thegardening system comprising an oxygen and carbon dioxide emitter that isselectively activated by a control command transmitted from thecontroller to the oxygen and carbon dioxide emitter based on datacaptured by the oxygen sensors and carbon dioxide sensors.
 12. Thegardening system of claim 1, comprising: an imaging component mounted tothe frame and configured to capture image data corresponding to plantsin the housing; and at least one network interface configured totransmit the captured image data.
 13. The gardening system of claim 12,wherein the imaging component comprises an infrared radiation sensitivecamera.
 14. The gardening system of claim 12, wherein the imagingcomponent comprises a visible light sensitive camera.
 15. A system forgrowing plants and monitoring growth of the plants, comprising: aserver; at least one network interface; wherein the server comprises atleast one memory and at least one processor configured for: receivingsensor data from a vertical gardening system; based on the sensor data,determining optimal plant growing thresholds; receiving additional datafrom the vertical gardening system; comparing the additional data withthe optimal plant growing thresholds; and based on the comparing,generating a control command corresponding to an optimizationrecommendation and transmitting the control command to a user device.